The works of Christopher Marlowe

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R- ft./t(.6. /C.b<J

14

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Zbc lEnGliab Btamatists

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

VOLUME THE FIRST

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'Aiv/UXti

Pin DAK, Olymp, vii.

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THE WORKS

OP

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

EDITED BY

A. H. BULLEN, B.A.

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME THE FIRST

LONDON

JOHN C. NIMMO
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.

MDCCCLXXXV

^^UiUdCS.t' if

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HALLANTTMB, HAMSON AND OO
BDINBUBCK AND LONDON

(

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PREFACE.

The present Tolumes are the first instalment towards
a coUectiye edition of the dramatists who lived about
the time of Shakespeare. As the series is intended
neither for school-boys nor antiquarians, I have avoided
discussions on grammatical usages, and I have not
preserved the ordiography of the old copies. In Eliza-
bethan times orthography followed the caprices of the
printer.!

I desire to acknowledge in the fullest and frankest
manner the obligation under which I lie towards the
late Mr. Dyce. Perhaps it will be thought that Mr.
Dyce's name occurs too frequently in the notes to the
present volumes. In many cases the emendations he
proposes would naturally suggest themselves to any
sensible reader ; but I was unwilling to incur the suspi-
cion of having furtively appropriated my predecessor's
notes.

I have used with advantage the late Lieutenant-Colonel

1 Where in the old editions we find a plural subject joined to a
singular verb, I have not modernised the weU-authenticated con-
struction. Such a line as

<* Her lips sucks forth my soul ; see where it flies I "
sounds very harsh to our ears ; but if Marlowe so wrote the verse, an
editor is not justified in making any alteration.

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vi Preface.

Cunningham's edition of Marlowe. Colonel Cunning-
ham was a genial and acute editor, though somewhat
inaccurate. The elaborate editions of The Tragical
History of Dr, Fausius^ by Professor Ward, and the late
Professor Wagner of Hamburg, have afforded me much
help; and I have consulted with profit the edition of
Edward 11, prepared by Mr. F. G. Fleay, a scholar
whose knowledge in some respects is unrivalled. In
the British Museum is preserved an interleaved copy of
the 1826 edition of Marlowe (acquired by the Museum
authorities in 1847), containing MS. notes by a com-
petent scholar, J. Broughton. I have found Broughton's
notes serviceable.

My best thanks are due to the Keeper of the Records
of Canterbury Cathedral, Mr. J. Brigstocke Sheppard, for
his courtesy in examining the Treasurer's Accounts of the
King's School, Canterbury, and in sending me eactracts
from the Chamberlain's Accounts ; to my friend Mr. C.
H. Firth of Balliol College, who, besides making frequent
references for me to books in the Bodleian, and aiding
me with valuable suggestions, read the proof sheets of
half of the second volume and of the whole of the third ;
and to my friend Mr. L. Jacob, formerly scholar of
Trinity College, Cambridge, by whose advice I have
frequently profited For permission to print as an
appendix Mr. R. H. Home's Death of Marlowe^ I am
indebted to Mr. Home's literary executor, Mr. H. Buxton
Forman, the well-known editor of Shelley and Keata

West Hampstsad,
July*], 1884.

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CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

wMtm
PREFACE r

INTRODUCTION * . . . te

FIRST PART OF TAMBURLAINE 7

SECOND PART OF TAMBURLAINE 107

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DR. FAUSTUS ... 907

PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.

Four hundred copies of this' Edition have been printed
and the type distributed. No mart will be published.

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INTRODUCTION,

The achievements of Shakespeare's greatest predecessor
in the English drama have at length been recognised as
a fact in English literature; nor is it possible to look
forward to a time when the study of his works will be
restricted, as of old, to antiquarians and bibliographers.
All who have any serious care for English poetry have
felt the magic of Marlowe's " mighty line." They know
that in moving terror and pity the creator of Faustus and
Edward IL was excelled only by Shakespeare; and
they know, too, that the rich music of Hero and Leander
was heard no more in England until the coming of
Keats. One of the lessons which Mr. Browning never
tires of teaching is that a lofty aim, even where failure
follows, "surpasses little works achieved." Surely no
man ever aimed higher than Marlowe ; and within so
short a space of life few have carried out so worthily
their vast designs. He was the first in England to
compose tragedies that should have a lasting interest for
men. The plays of Greene and Peele are important only
as showing how poor was the state of dramatic art at the
young poet's advent It was Marlowe who created, in
the trae sense of the word, English blank verse, and
VOL. I. b

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X Introduction.

constituted it the sole vehicle of dramatic expression for
all time. The rest of Shakespeare's predecessors are
shadows ; Marlowe alone lives.

Christopher Marlowe, son of John Marlowe, was
baptized at the church of St George the Martyr, Canter-
bury, on 26th February 1563-4.^ The poet's father, who
died on 26th January 1604-5, ^^ "clarke of St.
Maries." On the margin of a copy of Beard's Theatre
of God's Judgments^ 159^* is a MS. note "Marlowe a
shooe makers sonne of Cant." Marginal scribblings " in
a very old hand " have been so frequently fabricated that
I was inclined to attach no importance to this MS. note,
but the Keeper of the Records of Canterbury Cathedral,
Mr. J. B. Sheppard, kindly extracted from the " Chamber-
lain's Accounts" some entries which prove that John
Marlowe was a shoemaker. The entries relate to the
admission of freemen. There is an entry dated 26th
April 1593, " Joh. Marlowe's apprentice {shoemaker)^ Will.
Hewes admitted;" another dated 29th January 1594,
*' Joh. Crauforde Shoem'. admitted ; mar. Anne d. of Joh.
Marlowe Shoem^ ; " and a third, dated 28th September
1594, "Thom. Graddell, Vintner, mar. Dorothy d. of
John Marlowe Sho6m^ (admitted)." Apprenticeship or
marriage with a freeman's daughter conferred freedom.

Marlowe was educated at the King's School, Canter-
bury. His name does not occur in the Treasurer's
Accounts for 1575-6 and 1576-7; and the register for

1 This fact was established by Dyce from an examinatioa of the
Parish Register.

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Introduction. xi

1577-8 is lost In the accounts for the first quarter of
the financial year 1578-9 (namely, from Michaelmas to
Christmas 1578) we find no mention of him, but in the
accounts for the three following quarters Qanuary to
Michaelmas 1579) he is reported to have received his
exhibition of ;£'i per quarter. For 1579-80 the record
is missing.^

On 17th March 1 580-1, Marlowe matriculated at
Cambridge as Pensioner of Benet College (now Corpus
Christi). The only mention of him in the Books of the
College is an entry of his admission, and he is there
called simply " Marlin " — without the Christian name.
It appears to have been a rule at Benet College to record
the Christian name along with the surname only in the
case of scholars; hence the absence of the Christian
name is held to show that Marlowe was not elected to
one of the two scholarships which had recently been
founded by Archbishop Parker at Benet College for the
benefit of boys educated at the King's School, Canter-
bury. Cunningham urges that it is " less unlikely that
a hurried and quasi informal entry has been made in
the books than that a boy of Marlowe's industry and
precocity of intellect should have gone from that par-
ticular school to that particular college on any footing
than that of a foundation scholar." The absence of
Marlowe's Christian name firom the College Books is a
tangible piece of evidence, but there is nothing whatever

1 As Dyce's account is somewhat loosely worded, I applied to Mr.
J. B. Sheppard, who supplied me with the particulars I have given.

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xii Introduction.

to show that Marlowe was distinguished for industry at
school. His classical attainments at the beginning of
his literary career appear not to have been considerable.
In his translation of Ovid's Atnores^ which is by no
means a difficult book, he misses the sense in passages
which could be construed to-day with ease by any
fourth-form boy. After making all allowance for the
inaccuracy of ordinary scholarship in Marlowe's day, it
may be safely said that the poet could not have earned
much distinction at Cambridge for sound classical
knowledge. The probability is that, both at school and
college, he read eagerly but not accurately. His fiery
spirit, " still climbing after^knowledge infinite," would ill
brook to be fettered by the gyves and shackles of an
academical training. But whether he held a scholar-
ship or not, he was content to submit so far to the
ordinary routine (less irksome then than now) as to
secure his Bachelor's Degree in 1583 and commence
Master of Arts in 1587.

Dyce puts the question. Who defrayed the expenses
of his Academical course if he had no scholarship? It
is not improbable that he may have gone to Cambridge
at the expense of some patron ; and Dyce ventures to
suggest that the patron was Sir Roger Manwood, Chief
Baron of the Exchequer, who had a mansion at St.
Stephen's, near Canterbury. On the back of the title-
page of a copy of Hero and Leander, ed. 1629, Collier
found a manuscript Latin epitaph on this gentleman
(who died in December 1592), subscribed with Marlowe's
name. The epitaph has every appearance of being

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Introduction. xiii

genuine ;^ and as Sir Roger Manwood was distinguished
for his munificence, it is not at all unlikely that at some
time or other he had made Marlowe the recipient of his
bounty. But I must leave the reader to accept or reject
Dyce's theory as he pleases.

We have now to consider how Marlowe was engs^ed
after taking his bachelor's degree in 1583. The most
plausible view is that of Cunningham, who su^ests that
the poet trailed a pike in the Low Countries. Ife points
out with some force that Marlowe's " familiarity with
military terms, and his fondness for using them are most
remarkable." But we must beware of laying too much
stress on this argument ; for all the Elizabethan dramatists
possessed in large measure the faculty, for which Shake-
speare was supremely distinguished, of assimilating tech-
nical knowledge of every kind. Phillips, who was fol-
lowed by Antony-k-Wood and Tanner, states in his
Thcatrum Foetarum that Marlowe *' rose from an actor

1 It rans as follows : —

" In obitum honomtissimi Viri, Rogeri Manwood, Militk, Quaestorii

Reginalis Capitalis Baronis,
Noctivagi terror, ganeonis triste flagellum,
Et Jovis Alcides, rigido vulturque latroni,
Uma subtegitur. Scelemm, gaudete, nepotes 1
InsoDS, luctifica sparsis cenrice capillis,
Plaage ! fori lumen, ▼enerandae gloria legis,
Ocddit : heu, secum efioetas Acherontis ad oras
Multa abiit virtus. Pro tot virtutibus uni
Livor, parce viro ; non andadssimus esto
lUiiis in cineres, cujos tot millia vultus
Mortalium attonuit : sic cum te nuntia Ditis
Vulneret ezsanguis, feliciter ossa quiescant,
Famaque marmorei superet montunenta sepulcbri."

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XIV Introduction,

to be a maker of plays ;" but the authority of Phillips —
who was very frequently inaccurate — carries little weight
Collier, who did so much to enlighten students, and so
much to perplex them, produced from his capacious
portfolio a MS. ballad about Marlowe, entitled the
Atheists Tragedie, from which it would appear that the
poet had been an actor at the Curtain and in the perform-
ance of his professional duties had had the misfortune
to break his leg : —

" A poet was he of repute.

And wrote full many a playe ;
Now strutting in a silken sute,
Now begging by the way. •

He had also a player been

Upon the Cnrtaine-stage ;
But brake his leg in one lewd scene

When in his early age.** ^

This is doubtless very ingenious, but I have little
hesitation in pronouncing the ballad to be a forgery,
though Dyce — who had been victimised on other occa-
sions — and later editors accept it as genuine. The
words ** When in his early age " can only mean that the
poet was a boy-actor at the Curtain ; but we know that
he could not possibly have been connected with the
stage before 1583. I have not seen the MS., and so am
unable to deliver any opinion as to the style of the
hand-writing ; but when we remember how many docu-
ments, proved afterwards to be forgeries. Collier put

1 The ballad is given in full at the end of the third volume.

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Introduction. xv

forward as genuine, we shall be quite justified in rejecting
the Atheisfs Tragedie. It is a work of no great difficulty
to imitate with success a doggerel ballad.

Critics are agreed that the first, in order of time, of
Marlowe's extant dramatic productions is the tragedy of
Tamburlaine the Great, in two parts. From internal
evidence there can be no doubt that Tamburlaine was
written wholly by Marlowe ; but on the title-page of the
early editions there is no author's name, and we have no
decisive piece of external evidence to fix the authorship
on Marlowe. In Henslowe's Diary there is an entry
which, if it had been genuine, would have been con-
clusive : —

"Pd unto Thomas Dickers, the 20 of Desembr 1597,
for adycyous to Fostus twentie shellinges, and fyve shel-
lei^es for a prolog to Marloes Tamberlen, so in all I
saye payde twentye fyve shellinges." (Henslowe's Diary,
ed J. P. Collier, pi 71.)

Unfortunately this entry, which was received without
suspicion by Dyce and other editors, is a forgery. Mr.
G. F. Warner, who published in 1881 his careful and
elaborate catalogue of the Manuscripts and Muniments of
Dulwich College, pronounces that "the whole entry is
evidently a forgery, written in clumsy imitation of Hens-
lowe's hand. The forger, however, has shown some
skill in his treatment of a narrow blot or smudge which
intersects the upper part of the // in the second ^ shel-
linges ; ' for in order that the writing may appear to be
under and not over the old blot, he has at first carried
up the // (as if writing u) only as far as the lower edge

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xvi Introduction.

of thfe blot, and then started again from the upper edge
to make the loops" (p. 159). The only piece of
external evidence which appears to connect Marlowe
with Tamburlaine is to be found in a sonnet ^ of Gabriel
Harvey's, printed at the end of his New Letter of Notable
Contents^ i593- From a passage in the Black Book, 1604
(a tract attributed on no sure ground to Thomas Mid-
dleton the dramatist), Malone inferred that Tamburlaine
was written in whole or part by Nashe. The passage to
which Malone referred occurs in the account of an
imaginary visit paid to Nashe in his squalid garret
"The testern, or the shadow over the bed," we are
informed, "was made of four ells of cobwebs, and
a number of small spinner's ropes hung down for
curtains : the spindle-shank spiders, which show like
great letchers with little legs, went stalking over his head
as if they had been conning of Tamburlaine^* (Dyce's
MiddUton^ v. 526.) It is difficult to see how any con-
clusion about the authorship of Tamburlaine can be
drawn from this passage. The writer's meaning is that
the spiders walked with the pompous gait of an actor
rehearsing the part of Tamburlaine, But, putting aside
the evidence (in itself conclusive) of style, there is an
excellent reason for dismissing Nashe's claims. To
Robert Greene's Menaphon^ of which the first extant
edition is dated 1589 (though some critics suppose that
the book was originally published in 1587), Nashe con-

1 This sonnet, with the accompanying postscript and gloss, will be
examined later in the introduction.

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Introduction. xvii

tributed an epistle "To the Gentlemen Students of Both
Universities,'' in which he holds up to ridicule the
'' idiote art-masters that intrude themselves to our eares
as the alcumists of eloquence ; who (mounted on the
stage of arrogance) think to outbrave better pens with
the swelling bumbast of a bragging blank verse. Indeed
it may be the ingrafted overflow of some kilcow con-
ceipt that overcloieth their imagination with a more
than drunken resolution, beeing not extemporall in the
invention of anie other meanes to vent their manhood,
commits the digestion of their cholerick incumbrances
to the spacious volubilitie of a drumming decasillabon."
(Grosart's Nashe^ i. xx.) This passage was surely in-
tended as a counterblast to the Prologue of Tamburiaine.
The allusion to "idiote art-masters" points distinctly
to Marlowe, who took his Master's degree in 1587 ; and
it was Marlowe who had stamped "bragging blank
verse " as his own. Afterwards Nashe was on friendly
terms with Marlowe; but in 1589 (or 1587?) he was
doing his best to aid Greene in discrediting the author
of Tamburiaine, In an address "To the Gentlemen
Readers," prefixed to his Ferimedes the Black Smithy
iS88,Greene denounces the introduction of blank verse,
which he compares to the " fa-burden of Bo-belL" He
speaks with scorn of those poets " who set the end of
scoUarisme in an English blank verse;" and expressly
mentions Tamburiaine^ — "daring God out of heaven
with that atheist Tamburlan, or blaspheming with the
mad preest of the sonne." It is therefore plain that
Tamburiaine, which was entered in the Stationers' books

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xviii Introduction.

on 14th August 1590, and published in the same year,
had been presented on the stage in or before 1588
(probably in 1587) ; and it is equally plain that Nashe ^
had no share in the composition of a play which
he so unsparingly ridiculed in the epistle prefixed to
Menaphon,

It is difficult to over-estimate the importance of Tarn-
hurlaine in the history of the English drama. To appre-
ciate how immensely Marlowe outdistanced at one bound
all his predecessors, the reader must summon courage to
make himself acquainted with such productions as Gor-
bodtUj The Misfortunes of Arthur^ and Sir Clyotnon and
Sir Clamydes, He will then perceive how real is Marlowe's
claim to be regarded as the father of the English drama.
That the play is stuffed with bombast, that exaggeration is
carried sometimes to the verge of burlesque, no sensible
critic will venture to deny. But the characters, with all
their stiflfness, have life and movement The Scythian con-
queror, " threatening the world in high astounding terms,"
is an impressive figure. There is nothing mean or trivial

1 Seycral allusions to Tamburlaine migfat be culled from Nasfae's
works. The following curious passage is from Christ's Ttares over
JertisaUm, 1592:— ** When neither the White-flag or the Red which
Tamburlaine advaunced at the siedge of any Citty, would be accepted
of, the Blacke-flag was sette up, which signified there was no mercy to
be looked for; and that the miserie marching towardes them was so
great, that their enemy himselfe (which was to execute it) moumd for it.
Christ having offered the Jewes the White-flage of forgivenesse and
remission, and the Red-flag of shedding his Blood for them, when these
two might not take effect, nor work any yeelding remorse in them, the
Black-flagge of confusion and desolation was to succeede for the obiect
of their obduration." (Works, ed. Grosart, iv. 97.)

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Introduction. xix

in the invention. The young poet threw into his work
all the energy of hb passionate nature. He did not
pause to polish his lines, to correct and curtail ; but was
borne swiftly onward by the wings of his imagination.
The absence of chastening restraint is felt throughout \
and, indeed, the beauty of some of the most majestic
passages is seriously marred by the introduction of a
weak or ill-timed verse. Take the following passage
from the First Part : —

" Nature that framed us of four elements,
Warring within our breasts for regiment,
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds :
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure every wandering planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
An(i always moving as the restless spheres,
Wills us to wear ourselves and never rest
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,
That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown." (it 7).

The ear exults in the sonorous march of the stately
verse as each successive line paces more majestically
than the preceding ; but what cruel discomfitture awaits
us at the end I It seems almost inconceivable that the
poet should have spoilt so magnificent a passage by the
lame and impotent conclusion in the last line. For the
moment we are half inclined to think that he is playing
some trick upon us ; that he has deliberately led up to
an anti-climax in order to enjoy the malicious satisfaction
oi laughing at our irritatioa The noble and oft-quoted

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XX Introduction.

passage on Beauty (i Tamhirlaifu, v. 2) is injured con-
siderably by the diffusehess of the context. Marlowe
seems to have blotted literally nothing in this earliest
play. But that he was responsible for the vulgar touches
of low comedy I am loth to allow. In the preface the
publisher, Richard Jones, writes: — "I have purposely
omitted and left out some fond and frivolous gestures,
digressing, and, in my poor opinion, far unmeet for the
matter, which I thought might seem more tedious unto
the wise than any way else to be regarded, though haply
they have been of some vain-conceited fondlings greatly
gaped at, what time they were showed upon the stage in
their graced deformities : nevertheless now to be mixed
in print with such matter of worth, it would prove a great
disgrace to so honourable and stately a history." It
would be well if he had used his pruning knife with even
greater severity and had left no trace of the excrescences
of buffoonery. There can be no doubt that these "vain
and frivolous gestures," of which the publisher complains,
were foisted in by the players.

The popularity of Tamburlaine must have been extra-
ordinary. A prologue by Hey wood, written at the revival
of \ht Jew of Malta in 1633, informs us that the part of
Tamburlaine was originally taken by the famous actor
Edward Albyn. The hero's habiliments were of a most
costly character. His breeches, as we learn from Hens-
lowe's Diary, were of crimson velvet, and his coat was
copper-laced. It is easy to conceive what roars of
applause would be evoked by the entrance of Tambur-
laine drawn in his chariot by the harnessed monarchs.

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/

Introduction. xxi

One delightfully ludicrous Hue in his address to the
captives : —

** Holla, ye pampered jades of Asia ! "

was constantly parodied for the next half century.
Greene, as we have seen, infuriated at the success of
the piece, railed against the "atheist Tamburlaine."
The satirist Hall, in a passage quoted by Dyce, is
equally severe : —

« One higher pitch'd doth set his soaring thought
On crowned kings that Fortune hath low brought,
On some opreared high-aspiring swaine
As it might be the TuHnsk Tamburktine,
Then weeneth he his base drink-drownM spright
Rapt to the three-fold loft of heaven hight.
When he conceives upon his fainM stage
The stalking steps of his great personage,
Graced with huf-cap termes and thund'ring threats
That his poor hearecs* hayre quite upright sets."

Then he proceeds to ridicule the comic business intro-
duced by the players : —

'* Now least such frightful showes of Fortune's fall
' And blondy tyrants' rage should chance apall
The dead-stroke audience, midst the silent rout
Comes tramping in a selfe-misformed lout,
And laughs and grins, and frames his mimik face,
And justles straight Into the prince's place :
Then doth the theatre eccho all aloud
With gladsome noyse of that applauding crowd :
A goodly hoch-poch when vile russettings
Are match with monarchs and with mightie kings."

These lines were written in 1597. Ben Jonson in his

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xxii Introduction.

Discoveries observes: — "The true artificer will not run
away from Nature as he were afraid of her; or depart
from life and the likeness of truth; but speak to the
capacity of his hearers. And though his language differs
from the vulgar somewhat it will not fly from all huma-
nity, with the Tamerlanes and Tamer-Chams of the late
age, which had nothing in them but the scenical strutting
and furious vociferation to warrant them to the ignorant
gapers." Wither in BritairCs Remembrancer (1628) al-
ludes to " great Tamburlaine upon his throne " uttering

" A majestical oration
To strike his hearers dead with admiration."

Taylor, the Water-Poet, in his Oration to the Great
Mogidy states that Tamburlaine "perhaps is not alto-
gether so famous in his 0¥m country of Tartaria as in
England" From a passage (quoted by Dyce) of
Cowley's Guardian it appears that the old play was
revived at the Bull about 1650. In 1681 it had become
almost wholly forgotten ; for in the preface to his play,
Tamerlane^ published in that year, Charles Saunders
writes : — " It hath been told me there is a Cock-pit play
going under the name of The Scythian Shepherd^ or
Tamberlain the Greats which how good it is any one
may judge by its obscurity, being a thing not a book-
seller in London, or scarce the players themselves who
acted it formerly, cow'd call to remembrance."

In the pages of the Academy (October 20, 1883), two
able scholars, Mr. C H. Herford and Mr. A. Wagner,
have investigated the authorities from which Marlowe

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Introduction. xxiii

drew his conception of Tamburlaine's character and
history. They show, at some length, and at the cost of
considerable research, that Marlowe was indebted to the
lives of Timur, by Pedro Mexia the Spaniard, and Petrus
Perondinus. Mexia's Siha de varia ledotiy published
at Seville in 1543, obtained great popularity, and was
translated into Italian, French, and English. The
English translation, known as Fortescue's The Foreste^
appeared in 1571 ; and there can be little doubt that
the book was an early favourite of Marlowe's. When
he determined to dramatise the story the poet probably
supplemented the information derived from Mexia by
a study of Perondinus' Vita magni Tamer/ants^ Flon,
155 1. The description of Tamburlaine's person, as
given by Perondinus, seems certainly to have been in
Marlowe's remembrance. " Of stature, tall " is a transla-
tion of '*Statura fuit procera;" and "his joints so
strongly knit," exactly corresponds with "valida erat
usque adeo nervorum compage." But, in order to
render his hero's appearance as majestic as possible,
Marlowe omits mention of the lameness on which
Perondinus dwells. Messrs. Herford and Wagner con-
clude their scholarly paper with a su^estion that the
poet " enriched his conception of the remote and little-
known countries, Persia and Scythia, from his classical
reading in Herodotus, Euripides, and Xenophon," and
that "the drawing of the weak Persians, Mycetes,
Chosroes, and Theridamas, j^ whose ' weakness ' is not
touched by Mexia, is exactly what we should expect
from a youth fresh from those old books in which

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XXIV Introduction.

Persian effeminacy is so piquantly contrasted with the
hardihood of Greece."

Before leaving TamJmrlaine a word must be said
about Marlowe's introduction of blank verse. Unrhymed
verse of ten syllables had been employed both for epic
and dramatic purposes before Marlowe's time. The
Earl of Surrey, in his translation of Books ii and iv.
of Virgil's jEndd^ had been the first to transplant the
metre from Italy. Surrey was a charming sonneteer
and graceful lyrist \ but it would be absurd to claim that
his translations from Virgil afford the slightest hint of
the capabilities of blank verse. It is impossible to select
six consecutive lines that satisfy the ear. Without
freedom or swing the procession of languid lines limps
feebly forward. When we come to Gorboduc, the first
dramatic piece in which rhyme was discarded, the case
is no better. little advance, or rather none at all, has
been made in rendering the verse more flexible. Misled
by classical usage, all writers before Marlowe aimed at
composing blank verse on the model of Greek iambics.
Confiising accent with quantity, they regarded accentuated
and unaccentuated syllables as respectively long and
short. Hence the aim was to end each line with a
strongly accentuated syllable, immediately preceded by
one that was unaccentuated; in the rest of the line
unaccentuated and accentuated syllables occurred alter-
nately. Then, to complete the monotony, at the end
of each verse came a pause, which effectually excluded
all freedom of movement This state of things Marlowe
abolished At a touch of the master's hand the heavy-

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Introduction. xxv

gaited verses took s^metry and shape. That the blank
verse of Tamburlaine left much to be desired in the
way of variety is, of course, undeniable. Its sonorous
music is fitted rather for epic than dramatic purposes.
The swelling rotundity of the italicised lines in the
following passage recalls the magnificent rhythm of
Milton : —

*' The galleys and those pilling brigandines
That yearly sail to the Venetian Gulf,
And hover in the Straits for Christians' wreck,
ShaU lie at anchor in the Isle Asant
Until the Persian fleet and men-of-war.
Sailing along ike oriental sea.
Have fetched about the Indian continent
Even from PersepoUs to Mexico,**

Later, Marlowe learned to breathe sweetness and soft-
ness into his "mighty line," — ^to make the measure that
had thundered the threats of Tamburlaine falter the sobs
of a broken heart.

On the authority of a memorandum in Coxeter's MSS.,
Walton stated that in the year 1587, the date to which
Tamburlaine is usually assigned, Marlowe translated
Coluthus* Rape of Helen into English rhyme. This
translation, if it ever existed, has not come down. The
version of the Amares must belong to a somewhat earlier
date. Dyce conjectures that it was written as a college
exercise (surely not at the direction of the college autho-
rities). It is a spirited translation, though the inaccuracies
are manifold ; in licentiousness, I am compelled to add,
it b a match for the original Its popularity was great,

VOL. I. c

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XXVI Introduction.

and — printed in company with Sir John Davies' Epigrams
— ^it passed through several editions, which are all un-
dated, and bear the imprint "Middleborugh" or "Middle-
bourgh" (in Holland). In June 1599, by order of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Marlowe's translation (to-
gether with Marston's Pygmalion^ Hall's Satires, and
Cutwode's Caltha Poetarum) was committed to the
flames; but it continued to be published abroad, and
some editions, with the imprint Middleborough on the
title-page, were surreptitiously printed at London.^

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus was probably
composed soon after Tamburlaine. In February 1588-9
a "ballad of the life and death of Doctor Faustus
the great Cungerer" was entered in the Stationers'
Registers. It is probable that this ballad (which is per-
haps identical with iSxt Ballad of Faustus^ preserved in
the Roxburghe Collection) was founded on the play.
No mention of the play occurs in Henslowe's Diary
earlier than September 30, 1594, although the entries
go back to February 159 1-2. As the profits from the
performance were unusually high ^ on that occasion, we
may conjecture that the play had been revived after a
considerable interval A German critic, Dr. J. H. Albers,
suggests that the reference to the Prince of Parma as

1 For full bibliographical particulars, see VoL III. p. 104.

« See Vol. I. p. 321.

> " Rd. at Docter Fostose . . . iij« xij«." - (Henslowe's Diary, ed.
J. P. Collier, p. 43.) Between September 1594 and October 1597 the
Diary contains notices of twenty-three performances of Faustus, At
the last performance, interest in the play having evaporated, the receipts
were nil.

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Introduction. xxvii

persecutor of the Netherlands, points to events that took
place before 1590 ; for in that year the Prince, who died
in December 1592, was chiefly occupied with the afiairs
of France. When he seeks in the lines (i. 80-83),

•* ini hare them fly to India for gold," &c.

an allusion to the banquet given to the Queen on board
ship by Cavendish after his return in the autumn of 1588
from a voyage round the world, Dr. Albers' argument
seems somewhat strained. But internal evidence amply
warrants us in assigning a later date to Fausius than to
Tamburiaine. There is more of passion in FaustuSy and
less of declamation; the early exuberance has been
pruned; the pathos is more searching and subtle; the
versification, too, b freer, — more dramatic

Fausius was entered in the Stationers' Books on
January 7 th, 1 600-1, but the earliest extant edition is
the quarto of 1604, which was republished with very
slight alterations in 1609.^ An edition with very nume-
rous additions and alterations appeared in 16 16.

Even the first edition gives us the play in an inter-
polated state; for no sane critic would maintain that
the comic scenes belong entirely to Marlowe. One
instance of a certain interpolation was pointed out by
Dyce In scene xi. there is an allusion to Dr. Lopez
— "Mass, Dr. Lopus was never such a doctor." Now

' HazlJtt mentions an edition of 161 1. Mr. Frederick Locker has an
aoique edition of 1619. (I owe my knowledge of these editions to the
exhaustive " Bibliography of Marlowe's Faustus," by Mr. Heinemann in
the Bibliographer. )

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xxviii Introduction.

the doctor was hanged for treasonable practices in June
1594. He did not come into notoriety until after
Marlowe's death, and any allusion to him before 1594
would have been unintelligible to the audience. From
this one passage it is plain that the first quarto does not
represent the play exactly as it came from Marlowe's
hand. But on the strength of internal evidence we might
go further, and say that the comic scenes are in no
instance by Marlowe. As far as possible, it is well to
avoid theorising, but I must state my conviction that
Marlowe never attempted to write a comic scene. The
Muses had dowered him with many rare qualities —
nobility and tenderness and pity — but the gift of humour,
the most grateful of all gifts, was withheld. To excite
" tears and laughter for all time " was given to Shake-
speare alone; but all the Elizabethan dramatists, if we
except Ford and Cyril Toumeur, combined to some
extent humour with tragic power. The Elizabethan
stage rarely tolerated any tragedy that was unrelieved
by scenes of mirth. It was in vain to plead the example
of classical usage, to point out that the Attic tragedians
never jested. Fortunately the ** understanding " pittites
were not learned in the classical tongues ; they applauded
when they were satisfied, and they " mewed " when the
play dragged. As the populace in Horace's time clam-
oured ** media inter carmina^^ for a bear or a boxer, so
an Elizabethan audience, when it felt bored or scared,
insisted on being enlivened by a fool or a clown. After
a little fuming and fr/^tting the poets accepted the con-
ditions j they soon found that the demand of the audience

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Introduction. xxix

was no outrage upon nature^ and that there need be no
abruptness in the passage from tears to laughter. And
so was realised for the first and last time in the world's
history the dream of Socrates ; the theory he propounded
to Agathon, who was too drunk and drowsy for argument
or contradiction, as the dawn broke over that memorable
symposium. But Marlowe could not don alternately
the buskin and the sock. His fiery spirit walked always
on the heights \ no ripple of laughter reached him as he
scaled the ''high pyramides '' of tragic art. But while
the poet was pursuing his airy path the actors at the
Curtain had to look after their own interests. They knew
that though they should speak with the tongues of angels,
yet the audience would turn a deaf ear unless some
comic business were provided Accordingly they em-
ployed some hack-writer, or perhaps a member of their
own company, to furnish what was required How exe-
crably he performed his task is only too plain. But it
is strange that Marlowe's editors should have held so
distinguished a dramatist as Dekker responsible for these
wretched interpolations. They were misled by the entry
in Henslowe's Diary concerning Dekker's ** addycions "
to FausiuSy — an entry which has been shown {vid. p, xv.)
to be a gross forgery. There is not the slightest tittle of
evidence to convict Dekker of having perpetrated the
comic scenes found in the quarto of 1604.

Let us now consider the relationship between the
quartos of 1604 and 16 16. From an undoubtedly
genuine entry in Henslowe's Diary (ed J. P. Collier,
p. 328), we learn that on November 22, 1602, William

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XXX Introduction.

Birde and Samuel Rowley were paid the sum of four
pounds for " adicyones " to Faustus, As the sum was
comparatively large the additions must have been con-
siderable. Dyce at first thought that the quarto of 1616
represented the play in the shape it had assumed at the
hands of Birde and Samuel Rowley. This view he after-
wards modified on finding that the anonymous Taming of
a ShreWy 1594, contained an obvious imitation of a line ^
first printed in ed. 16 16. But the editors are agreed
that the additions found in ed. 16 16 are in no instance
to be ascribed to Marlowe. My own opinion is, that the
new comic scenes and the bulk of the additional matter
are certainly not his ; but I hold at the same time that
ed. 1 616 gives us occasionally the author's revised text,
or restores passages that had been omitted in the first
edition. As this theory has not been put forward before,
I may be excused for dwelling on it at some length. If
the reader will turn to the speech of the chorus preced-
ing scene vii., and compare the texts of eds. 1604 and
1 61 6, he will readily perceive that the additional lines
preserved in the later edition render the passage much

1 The line in Faustus is—

"Or hewed this flesh and bones as small as sand," scene x*. I. 308,
and the imitation is—

" And hewed thee smaller than the Lyhian sands,**
There is an allusion to an incident of the interpolated scene x». in a
passage of Merry Wives , iv. 5 : — " So soon as I came beyond Eton they
threw me off from behind one of them in a slough of mire, and set spurs
and away, like three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses." Here
the reference may be to the prose tract, bat it is equally likely that
Shakespeare was glancing at the play ; for there is nothing to show that
the additional scene was not interpolated at aa early date.

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Introduction. xxxi

more picturesque. As the speech stands in the earlier
edition it is very meagre; the additional lines, which
were certainly beyond the reach of Birde or Samuel
Rowley, give precisely what was wanted Either Mar-
lowe added them when revising the play, or lines
omitted in the earlier edition were restored in the later.
The variations in scene xiv. are interesting. At the
point where Helen passes over the stage ed. 1604 has —

" 2nd SchoL Too simple is my wit to tell her praise,

Whom all the world admires for majesty.
yrd SehoL No marvel though the angry Greeks pursued
With ten years' war the rape of such a Queen,
Whose heavenly beauty passeth all compare.
ls( Schol. Since we hare seen the pride of Nature's works,
And only paragon of excellence,
Let us depart ; and for this glorious deed
Happy and blest be Faustus evermore.*'

In ed. 16 16 the passage stands —

" 2,nd Schol, Was this fair Helen whose admired worth

Made Greece with ten years* wars afflict poor Troy.
yd Schol, Too simple is my wit to tell her worth

Whom all the world admires for majesty.
\sl Schol, Now we have seen the pride of Nature's work

, We'll take our braves ; and for this blessM sight," &c.

In both editions the text is assuredly Marlowe's; but
in this instance the first quarto seems to preserve the
revised text. Later in the same scene the exhortation
of the Old Man reads better in the later than in the
earlier edition. The alterations are such as we might
expect the author to- have made on revision. As to the

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xxxii Introduction.

additions in the terrific scene xvL it is not easy to
speak with confidence; In my judgment the text of the
earlier edition is preferable. By delaying the catastrophe
the additions seem to weaken its impressiveness. At the
departure of the scholars, after they have paid their last
sad farewell, our feelings have been raised to the highest
pitch ; and the intrusion at that moment of the Good
and Evil Angels b an artbtic mistake. Nor does the
entrance of Lucifer and Mephistophilis at the beginning
of the scene contribute in the slightest degree to the
terror of the catastrophe. The scene as it stands in the
earlier edition — the pathetic leave-taking between Faustus
and the scholars, followed swiftly by the awful soliloquy
— needs no addition of horror. But the new matter
found in the later edition is undoubtedly powerful; it
was penned by no hack-writer, but has the ring of Mar-
lowe. My impression is, that the text in the later edition
gives us the scene in its first state ; and that Marlowe
on revising his work heightened the dramatic effect of the
profoundly impressive catastrophe by cancelling the pas-
sages which found their way into ed. 1616. But what
shall be s^d of the final colloquy between the scholars
when they find the mangled body of Faustus on the
morrow of that fearful night of storm ? Is it by Marlowe,
or is it, as the late Professor Wagner thought, the work
of a " mere versifier " ? To my ear the lines are solemn
and pathetic, thoroughly worthy of Marlowe ; but it does
not on this account follow that they have a dramatic
fitness. It is not improbable that the play in its un-
revised state concluded with the scene between the

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Introduction. xxxiii

scholars, and that the poet afterwards substituted for
this scene the chorus* speech of compassion and warning.
If we retain the colloquy between the scholars, then the
final moralising of the chorus would seem to be otiose ;
if, on the other hand, the chorus closes the play, then eren
the short delay caused by the appearance of the scholars
is felt to be a dramatic impropriety. To the chorus, in
my judgment, must be given the last word; and we
must part, however reluctantly, with the tender and
pitiful colloquy.^

My view, then, is that Marlowe revised his work ; that
the quartos of 1604 and 1616 were both printed from
imperfect and interpolated play-house copies, and that
neither gives the correct text; that in some cases the
readings of the earlier editions are preferable, in other
cases the readings of the later.

But, it may be objected, what evidence have we to
show that the Elizabethan dramatists ever revised their
works with such care and elaboration? Omitting all
references to doubtful cases — such as the relationship
between the 1597 and 1599 quartos oi Romeo and Juliet^
or the 1603 and 1604 quartos of Hamiet — and omitting,
too, the example of Ben Jonson, who was twitted by his

1 The lengthy additions in scene vii. are tlie worlc of a practised
playwright, but diction and Texsification plainly show that they are not
from Marlowe's hand. So too with the additional scenes on pp. 299-
31 X (VoL I.), although we are oocasionaUy reminded of Marlowe's early
manner in reading such lines as —

. . , " To cast his magic charms that shall pierce through
The ebon gates of eyer-buming hell.
And hale the stubborn Fnxies from their caves."

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xxxiv Introduction.

contemporaries for the labour that he bestowed on his
works (** For his were called works where others were but
play^)y I select two pieces which underwent at their
author's hands precisely the same revision as I hold to
have been given by Marlowe to Faustus. In Egerton
MS. 1994 (preserved in the British Museum) there is a
play entitled CalistOy or the Escapes of Jupiter, which I
have elsewhere shown to be composed of scenes from
Heywood's Golden Age and Silver Age, A comparison
of the text of the MS. with the text of the quartos shows
that the author when issuing the printed copy, revised
his work throughout, scene by scene, and line by line,
correcting, rewriting, curtailing, augmenting. This is
the more remarkable in Heywood's case, for he was the
most prolific of all the old dramatists, and might well be
supposed to have had little time for correction. Again :
in my edition of the works of John Day I have printed,
along with the text of the quarto, the readings of an early
MS. copy of the Parliament of Bees. In the MS., which
gives the unrevised text, we find many passages that were
afterwards cancelled on revision, and the quarto on the
other hand contains passages not found in the MS. ;
while the variations in phrases and single words are very
numerous.

For information as to the origin and growth of the
Faust-legend, I refer the reader to the elaborate intro-
ductions by Professor Ward and the late Professor
Wagner to their editions of Faustus. The point for us
to consider is where Marlowe obtained the materials for
his tragedy. In 1587 at Frankfort-on-the-Main appeared

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Introduction. xxxv

the first connected account of the great conjurer, under
the title of Historia von D. Johann Fausten^ dem
wdtbtschreyien Zavberer und SchwartzkunsiUr, Two
reprints were published in the same, year, and three more
editions followed in 1589. It was from this book that
Marlowe drew his materials ; but it is probable that he
used an English translation, not the German original.
The earliest translation yet discovered is dated 1592. It
bears the following title : — The Historie of the damnable
life and deserved death of Dr. John FaustuSy Newly
imprinted and in convenient places imperfect matter
amended: according to the true copie printed at Franckfort
and translated into English by P. F, Gent.^ The words
" Newly imprinted " show that there must have been an
edition prior to 1592. It should be remembered that the
book was one of those popular productions which ran
the greatest risk of being thumbed out of existence. Of
the first edition of the German original only a single
copy (preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna) is
now known,* There is one strong piece of evidence to
show that Marlowe made use of an English translation.
In scene v. the third article of the contract signed by
Faustus runs, " Shall do for him and bring for him what-
soever/* Dyce pointed out that the curious text of this
passage closely tallies with the text of the corresponding
passage in the prose tract Dyce's quotations are fi-om
ed. 1648 ; he does not seem to have been aware of the

1 Some later editions bear the name ** P. R. Gent." on the title-page.
* The late Professor Wagner is mj authority for this statement.

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xxxvi Introduction.

existence of the 1592 edition, where the article stands,
" That Mephistophilis should bring him anything and
doo for him whatsoever^ ^ This verbal coincidence is
too striking to be merely accidental It has been
suggested by Dr. Von der Velde that the English actors
who performed at the courts of Dresden and Berlin
between 1585 and 1587 (as shown by Mr. Albert Cohn
in his work on Shakespeare in Germany) brought with
them on their return to England at the end of 1587 the
recently published Faustbuch. Professor Ward adds a
further suggestion, which deserves consideration. In the
German original we have a Duke of Anhalt (in the
English tract, Anholt) who becomes in the play the
Duke of Vanholt Professor Ward thinks that the
" oddity is best to be reconciled with the other circum-
stances of the case by the supposition that the German
Faustbuch was brought over to England in one of its
early editions (before that of 1590) by some person or
persons who had travelled both in Germany and in the
Netherlands ; that through them it came into Marlowe's
hands in the shape of a MS. English translation ; and
that the MS. translation was very probably used by ' P.
R.' or whoever was the 'gentleman' who wrote the
English History." He proceeds to state that the English
actors who had been performing in Germany would
naturally pass through the Netherlands on their return to
England. The theory is ingenious, but it is hardly safe
to build on such slender foundations.

1 The original has *' Zum dritten, dasz er im gefliesaen, unterthMnig
und gehoxsam seyn woUte, als ein Diener."

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Introduction. xxxvii

Marlowe's tragedy speedOy became popular not only
in England but abroad. From a recently published
work of great interest by Herr Johannes Meissner, Die
EnglischencopuBdianten %ur zdt Shakespeares in OeUerrdch^
we learn that Faustus and the Jew of Malta^ with nine
other English plays, were acted (in German versions) by
an English company in 1608, during the Carnival at
Graetz.^ Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries Faustus remained a favourite at Vienna. A
Hanswurst or Clown was introduced; the Jesuits, disliking
Faustus* scepticism, converted him into a sort of Don
Juan ; and the two aspects of his character were after-
wards combined by Goethe. Among the plays performed
by an English company at the Dresden court in 1626 was a
Tragcedia von Dr. Faust^ which was certainly Marlowe's ;
on the same list is found a Barrabas^ which was no less
certainly a version of the Jew of Malta.

Although the popularity of Faustus in England is at-
tested by the number of editions through which it passed,
few early allusions to the play are discoverable. When
Shakespeare wrote of Helen in Troilus and Cressida,

" Why, she is a pearl
Whose price hath launched above a thousand skips^^

1 Herr Meissner quotes from a MS. Toliime of travels by a Wurtem-
beig merchant a statement to the e£Gsct that at Fxankfort-on-the-Main,
in 1592, daring the autumn fair, were acted plays " by the master very
fiunous in the island, Christopher Marlowe." But Herr Meissner has
not seen the MS. from which the statement is taken, and his informant
is onable to lay his hand upon it in the public library ; so better proof
is wanted.

* See Cohn's Shakesptart in Germany^ err. cxvii.

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xxxviii Introduction.

he must surely have had in his mind the line of Mar-
lowe —

<* Was this the &ce that Uumched a thousand ships f "

It was pointed out by Wagner that the scene in Bar-
nabe Barnes' DemPs Charter ^ 1607, where Pope Alex-
ander VI. signs a contract with a devil disguised as a
pronotary, is modelled on scene v. of Faustus, In
Tim^s Whistle^ by " R. C. Gent," a collection of satires
written between 161 4 and 1616, there is a passage which
Mr. J. M. Cowper (who edited the satires for the Early
English Text Society) takes to refer " to the story of the
play of Faustus, although it may be said the story was
common enough for *R. C to have got it elsewhere."
From Samuel Rowlands' Knave of Clubs we learn that
the part of Faustus was originally sustained by Edward
Alleyn : —

" The gull gets on a surplis,
With a crosse upon his brest,
Like Allen playing Faustus,
In that manner was he drest."

In this Theatrum Poetarum (1675) Phillips observes
quaindy '^ Of all that Marlowe hath written to the stage,
his Dr, Faustus hath made the greatest noise, with its
devils and such like tragical sport"

Dr, Faustus is a work which once read can never be
forgotten. It must" be allowed that Marlowe did not
perceive the full capabilities afforded by the legend he
adopted ; that crudeness of treatment is shown in making
Faustus abandon the pursuit of supernatural knowledge,

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Introduction. xxxix

and turn to triTial uses the power that he had purchased
at the price of his souL This and more may be granted ;
but criticism is silenced when we reflect on the agony
of Faustus' final soliloquy and the fervid splendour of
his raptures over Helen's beauty. Dr. Faustus is rather
a series of dramatic scenes than a complete drama.
Many of these scenes were the work of another hand
and may be expunged with advantage. But what
remains is singularly precious. The subtler treatment
of a later age can never efface from our minds the
appalling realism of the catastrophe in Marlowe's play :
still our sense is pierced by that last despairing cry of
shrill anguish —

** Ugly HeU, gape not ! come not, Lucifer !
rU burn my books ! Ah, Mephistophilis ! "

Goethe's English biographer speaks slightingly of Mar-
lowe's play ; but Goethe ^ himself, when questioned about
Dr, FausttiSy ** burst out with an exclamation of praise :
How greatly was it all planned 1 He had thought of
translating it"

We have no evidence to enable us to fix precisely the
date of the Jim/ of Malta, The reference in the pro-
logue to the death of the Duke of Guise shows that it
was composed not earlier than December 1588. Hens-
lowe's Diary contains numerous entries concerning the
play, ranging from 26th February 1591-2 to 21st June

^ H. Crabb Robinson's Diary (ii. 434), quoted in the preface to
Cunningham's Marlowe, p. xiy.

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xl Introduction.

2596 ; and there is a notice in the Diary of its revival
on 19th May 1601. On 17th May 1594 it was entered
in the Stationers' Books, but it was not published until
1633, when it was edited by Thomas Hey wood after
its revival at Court and at the Cockpit In 1608, as
Herr Meissner has shown, it was one of the plays per-
formed at Graetz during the Carnival ; in the previous
year it had been performed at Passau.

The./««f of Malta is a very unequal worL Hallam,
the most cautious of critics, gives it as his opinion that
the first two acts ''are more vigorously conceived, both
as to character and to circumstance, than any other
Elizabethan play, except those of Shakespeare." This
judgment, bold as it appears at first sight, probably
represents the truth. The masterful grasp that marks
the opening scene was a new thing in English tragedy.
Language so strong, so terse, so dramatic, had never
been heard before on the English stage. In the two
first acts there is not a trace of juvenility ; all is con-
ceived largely and worked out in firm, bold strokes.
Hardly Shakespeare's touch is more absolutely true and
unfaltering; nor is it too much to say that, had the
character been developed throughout on the same scale
as in the first two acts, Barrabas would have been worthy
to stand alongside of Shylock. But in the last three
acts vigorous drawing is exchanged for caricature ; for a
sinister life-like figure we have a grotesque stage-villain,
another Aaron. How this extraordinary transformation
was effected, why the poet, who started with such clear-
eyed vision and stern resolution, swerved so blindly and

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Introduction. xli

helplessly from the path, is a question that may well
perplex critics. Was the artisf s hand paralysed by the
consciousness of an inability to work out in detail
the great conception? I think not It is more reason-
able to assume that the play was required by the actors
at a very short notice, and that Marlowe merely sketched
roughly the last three acts, leaving it to another hand to
fill in the details; or it may be that he put the play
aside, under stress of more pressing work, with the
intention of resuming the half-told story at a later date,
an intention which was frustrated by his sudden death.
In any case it is a sheer impossibility to believe that the
play in its present form represents the poefs finished
work. Marlowe is not less guiltless of the extravagance
and buffoonery in the last three acts of ih^Jew of Malta
than of the grotesque and farcical additions made to Dr,
Faustus. Yet it was doubtless to this very extravagance
that the play owed much of its popularity.^

It has not yet been discovered where Marlowe pro-
cured the materials for his play. Probably he used
some forgotten novel; nor is it unlikely that he had
been afforded opportunities of personally studying Jewish
character. The old notion that there were no Jews in
England during the Elizabethan time has been shown
by modem research to be wholly untenable.* Barabas'

^ The extraordinary size of Barabas' nose was long xemembered.
Vraiiam Rowley, in his Search for Money ^ 1609, speaks of the "artificial
Jew of Malta's nose."

* I rrfer the reader to Mr. S. L. Lee*s article on The Original tf
Sfyleck (in the GenilemanU Magagine for February, x88o). Mr. Lee

VOL. I. d

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xlii Introduction.

devoted love for his daughter is so fully emphasized in
the first two acts that we cannot but suppose Marlowe
to have been acquainted with at least one leading trait
in Jewish character, the intense family-affection which
has distinguished the Jews of all ages. Round the
person of Barabas, in the two first acts^ is thrown such a
halo of poetry as circles Shylock from first to last His
figure seems to assume gigantic proportions ; his lust of
gold is conceived on so grand a scale that the grovelling
passion is transmuted, by the alchemy of the poet's
imagination, into a magnificent ambitioa Our senses
are dazzled, sober reason is staggered by the vastness of
Barabas' greed : —

" Give me the merchants of the Indian mines,
That trade in metal of the purest mould ;
The wealthy Moor that in the Eastern rocks
Without control can pick his riches up,
And in his house heap pearl like pebble-stones.
Receive them free and sell them by the weight ;
Bags of fiery opals, sapphires, amethysts.
Jacinths, hard topaz, grass-green emeralds.
And seld*seen costly stones of so great piioe^
As one of them, indifferently rated.
And of a carat of this quantity.
May serve, in peril of odamity.
To ransom great kings from captivity."

Very impressive is the scene where Barabas is shown
pacing beneath the casement, ''in the shadow of the

is understood to be engaged on a searching inquiry as to the residence
of Jews in England between 1290 and 1655, ^ ^»Xtti of their expul-
sion and return.

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Introdtution. xliii

silent night," like an unquiet spirit round a spot where
treasure has been buried And what a burst of lyric
ecstacy when he clasps once more his money-bags ! —

•• Now, Phoebus, ope the eye-lids^ of the day,
And, for the ntTen, wake the morning lark.
That I may hover with her in the air.
Singing o'er these, as she does o'er her young."

Again and again must we regret that the last three acts
were not composed on the same scale as the earlier part
of the play.

Edward the Second was entered in the Stationers*
Books on 6th July 1593. In the Dyce Library at
South Kensington there is a quarto with a MS. title-
page (in a hand of the late 17th century), dated 1593.
The first page is in MS., and contains several mistakes,
but the text of the printed matter agrees throughout
with the quarto of 1598 ; it may therefore be assumed
that the date 1593 is a mistake of the copyist for 1598.^
Warton states that tiie play " was written in the year
1590," but he adduces no evidence in support of his
assertion. It is certainly the most elaborate of Marlowe's
works, and it has fortunately descended to us with a text
free from any serious corruptions. We can hardly
assign an earlier date than 1590 for its composition.

A comparison between Edward 11. and Richard IL

* The expression " eye-lids of the day,'* recalls the language of Job —
" By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eye-lids of
tht morning,^

* There are two copies of ed. 1598 in the British Museum. In one or
two passages the texts di£fer. a circumstance not uncommon in copies of
the tame edition of an old play.

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xliv Introduction.

natuzally suggests itself to every reader. Charles Lamb
remarked that '' the reluctant pangs of abdicating royalty
in Edward furnished hints which Shakespeare scarce
improved in his Richard the Second ; and the death-
scene of Marlowe's king moves pity and terror beyond
any scene, ancient or modern, with which I am ac-
quainted." Mr. Swinburne thinks that there is more
discrimination of character in Marlowe's play than
Shakespeare's ; that the figures are more life-like, stand
out more clearly as individual personalities. It may
also be urged that there is more '' business " in Marlowe's
playj that the action is never allowed to flag. The
character of the gay, frank, fearless, shameless favourite,
Piers Gaveston, is admirably drawn. Even in the
presence of death, with the wolfish eyes of the grim
nobles bent on him from every side, he loses nothing
of his old jauntiness. Marlowe has thoroughly realised
this character, and portrayed it in every detail with
consummate ability. Hardly less successful is the char-
acter of Young Spenser, the insolent compound of
recklessness and craft, posing as the saviour of society,
while he stealthily pursues his own selfish projects. In
his drawing of female characters, Marlowe showed no
great skill or variety. The features in some of his
portraits are either so dim as to present no likeness at
all, or they are excessively unlovely. Isabella is a vain,
selfish woman, without any strength of character. She
is hurt at finding herself neglected by the king, but the
wound is only surface-deep. She acquiesces passively
in her husband's death, and with equal indifference

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Introduction. xlv

would have sacrificed her paramour. Edward, with all
his weakness, is not wholly ignoble. In all literature
there are few finer touches than when, after recounting
his fearful suffering and privations in the dungeon, he
gathers his breath for one last kingly utterance :—

*' Tell Isabel, the queen, I looked not thus
When for her sake I ran at tilt in France,
And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont."

What heart-breaking pathos in those lines! For a
moment, as his thoughts travel back across the years,
he forgets the squalor of his dungeon and rides blithely
beneath the beaming eyes of his lady. It has been
objected that the representation of the king's physical
suffering oversteps the limit of dramatic art. Euripides
was censured by ancient critics for demeaning tragedy ;
but to-day the judgment of readers is on the side of
Euripides, not of his critics. Besides, if Euripides erred,
Sophocles erred also. The physical suffering of Philo-
cletes excites far more disgust than anything that we
find in Euripides. There are those who think that the
blinding of Gloster, in Lear^ surpasses in horror any
scene of physical agony enacted on the English stage.
But criticism, which fears to raise its voice against
Shakespeare, shows no mercy to Shakespeare's con-
temporaries.

It has been usually stated that Fabyan's Chronicle
was Marlowe's authority for the plot of Edward IL^ but
Mr. Fleay has made it abundantly clear that the poet's
indebtedness to Fabyan was very slight, and that the

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xlvi Introduction.

narratives of Stow and Holinshed, who tread closely in
the steps of Sir Thomas de la More, were largely used

The two remaining plays, the Massacre at Paris and
the Tragedy of Dido^ are preserved in a very unsatis-
factory state: the former had been cruelly mutilated,
and the latter — left unfinished at the author's death —
was completed by Thomas Nashe, an unequalled master
of invective, but a tragic poet of no high order. In
Henslowe's Diary (ed. J. P. Collier, p. 30), under date
30th January 1593-4, there is an entry — "Rd. at the
tragedy of the guyes [Guise] . . . iij* . . . iiij'." In
this part of the Diary the dates are in some confusion ;
and it is clear from the preceding and following entries
that the year should be 1592-3, not 1593-4. In the
margin opposite the entry Henslowe has written "w"
to show that it was a new play. External evidence,
therefore, seems to insist that the Massacre at Paris was
one of Marlowe's latest works. Even if we suppose
that the performance of the play did not immediately
follow its composition, yet we cannot regard the Massacre
at Paris as a very early work of Marlowe's ; for Henry III.
with whose assassination the play ends, died on 2nd
August 1589. But we have clear proof that the play
has come down in a corrupt and mutilated state. There
is preserved in an early MS.^ a portion of scene xix.,
probably a fragment of an original play-house copy. A
comparison of the text of the MS. (vid. VoL II. 277-8)

I First printed in -Collier's History of Engl, Drain, Lit, iii. 154
(ed. I).

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Iniroductian. xlvii

with the text of the printed copy shows how cruelly the
play suffered in passing through the press. But when
all allowances have been made on the score of curtail-
ments and corruptions, it is certain that the Massacre at
Paris was the feeblest of Marlowe's works. Only in
one passage does the poet rise to the height of his
theme I refer of course to the fine soliloquy of the
Duke of Guise in the second scene. There, and there
only, we find the old splendour of diction and magni-
ficence of imagination, the old yearning after limitless
power. The other characters are writ in water.

The Tragedy of Dido was published in 1594. On the
tide-|>age it is stated to have been written by " Chris-
topher Marlowe and Thomas Nash, Gent'| Probably
Marlowe left it incomplete at his death, and Nashe
finished it The tragic power shown in Dido is very
slight. For once Marlowe seems to have descended from
his fiery flight above the clouds, and to have sought re-
pose in a trim garden-plot ; instead of daring imagination,
we have quaint conceits and dainty play of fancy. My
own opinion is, that the play is in the main by Marlowe,
and that Nashe's work lay chiefly in completing certain
scenes which Marlowe had sketched in the rough. To
Marlowe must surely be given such lines as these in the
opening scene : —

" Vulcan shall dance to make thee laughing-sport,
And my nine daughters sing when thou art sad ;
From Jnno's bird I'll plnck her spotted pride,
To make thee wings wherewith to cool thy £Bce ;
And Venus' swans shall shed their silver down
To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed,*' &c.

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xlviii Introduction.

The rhjthm of these passages is precisely the same as in
the passage (iiL i) where Dido offers to Aeneas a fleet
with ^'tackling made of rivell'd gold." As Mr. Symonds
observes, '^ The blank verse, falling in couplets, seems to
cry aloud for rhymes." These passages, and the pretty
scene where the old nurse tempts away Cupid (who is
disguised as Ascanius) by a playfully exaggerated de-
scription of the delights of her orchard and flower-
garden, must have come from the same hand, — the
hand that wrote the song of the " Passionate Shepherd
to his Love." In the second act, where Aeneas relates
to Dido the story of the fall of Troy, occurs the passage,
which Shakespeare burlesqued in Hamlet^ describing the
slaughter of Priam. It is hard to believe that in its
present shape the narrative of Aeneas was written wholly
by Marlowe. In parts it is so absurdly grandiose that a
very slight heightening is required in order to get the
effect of burlesque. Let us take the description of the
slaughter of Priam : —

"At which the frantic queen leaped on his face,
And in his eyelids hanging by the nails,
A little while prolonged her husband's life.
At last the soldiers pulled her by the heels.
And swung her howling in the empty air.
Which sent an echo to the wounded king :
Whereat he Ufted up his bed-rid limbs.
And would have grappled with Achilles* son,
Forgetting both his want of strength and hands ;

1 A few years ago a theory was gravely propounded that the player's
speech in HamUt was " written originally by ShalLespeare to complete
Mariowe's play." This titanic absurdity— *' gross as a mountain, open,
palpable "— wu received with much applause in oertauxqnartefs*

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Introduction. xlix

VHuch he disdaming, whisk'd his sword about.

And with the wound [wind] thereof the King fell down ;

Then from the navel to the throat at once

He ripp'd old Priam."

If these lines are Marlowe's they must have been
written at the very beginning of his career. Compared
with this extraordinary passage the rant of Tamburlaine
is tame. It seems probable that Marlowe Idt the scene
unfinished, and that Nashe worked it up into its present
ridiculous shape. If the lines I have quoted are Nashe's
he must surely have been laughing in his sleeve when
he wrote them. It was a good opportunity of showing
that he had learnt the trick of " bragging blank verse,"
and could swagger in ''drumming decasyllabons."
Earlier in the same scene we find passages quite worthy
of Marlowe, as in the description how, when Sinon
unlocked the wooden horse,

<< Suddenly
From oat his entrails, Neoptolemus,
Setting his spear upon the ground, leapt forth,
And, after him, a thousand Grecians more
In whose stem faces shined the quenchless fire
That after burnt the pride of Asia."

About the authorship of such lines as those there can
be no possible doubt ; but there are very few passages in
Dido where the "mighty line" rings so unmistakeably.

The exquisite fragment of Hero and Leander^ which
was entered in the Stationers' Books on 28th September
1593, was first published in 1598, and a second edition,^

> Two copies of this adicion were di s oore r ed a few yean ago by Mr.

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1 Introduction.

with Chapman's continuatioiii appeared in the same
year. From a passage of the Third Sestiad it appears
that Marlowe, perhaps with a foreboding of his
untimely death, had enjoined upon Chapman the task
of completing the poem. The lines are these : —

" Then, ho, most strangely-intellectual fire
That, proper to my soul, hast power t' inspire
Her burning faculties, and wiUi the wings
Of thy unspherM flame visits't the springs
Of spirits immortal. Now, as swift as Time
Doth follow Motion, find th' eternal clime
Of his free soul whose living subject stood
Up to the chin in the Pierian flood,
And drunk to me half this Musaean story.
Inscribing it to deathless memory;
Confer with it, and make my pledge as deep
That neither^ s draught he consecrate to sleep :
Tell it how much his late desires /tender
(If yet it know not), and to light surrender
My souPs dark offspring"

When Chapman is inspired he is not always articulate.
In this apostrophe to the " free soul " of Marlowe we
cannot fail to be moved by the impassioned fervour of
the language ; but when we come to reread the passage,
and ask ourselves what is the meaning of the italicised
lines, we are beset with some difficulties. It is certain
that the words " late desires " cannot refer to any death-
bed utterance of Marlowe ; for we know that his end
was fearfully sudden. But if it has any meaning at all,

Charles Edmonds in a lumber-room at Lamport Hall. Northampton-
shire, the seat of Sir Charles Isham, Bait. No edition of the complete
poem earlier than that of z6oo bad been previously known.

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Introduction. li

the line, ''And drunk to me half this Musaean story,"
implies that Marlowe had shown his unfinished poem to
Chapman. It would not be rash to assert that Chapman
had encouraged Marlowe to proceed with the poem, or
that it had been originally undertaken at Chapman's
request The words "his late desires" refer to some
conversation that had passed between the two poets.
Marlowe must have expressed a desire that in the event
of his death Chapman should edit and complete the
poem, a duty which Chapman solemnly pledged himself
to perfornL In my judgment the passage shows that
Chapman not only had a profound admiration for Mar-
lowe^ but had been on terms of intimate friendship with
him. Dyce remarks that "as to the conclusion of the
passage, ' and to light surrender,' &c., I must confess that
I am far from understanding it clearly." But the mean-
ing seems intelligible : his " soul's dark offspring " is the
continuation of the poem, the four last sestiads as yet
undisclosed to public view; and "to light surrender"
merely means to set forth in print to the gaze of the
world.

Among all the Elizabethan poets there was none
whose genius fitted him to complete the poem of Hero
and Leander. The music of Marlowe's rhymed heroics
was all his own ; he was a master without pupils. In
Michael Drayton's Beraical EpistUs^ which need fear no
comparison with Ovid's Heroides^ we find fluency and
freedom and sweetness; but the clear, rich, fervent
notes of Hero and Leander were heard but once. No
less truly than finely does Mr. Swinburne say that the

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Hi Introduction.

poem "stands out alone amid all the wild and poetic
wealth of its teeming and turbulent age, as might a small
shrine of Parian jsculpture amid the rank splendour of a
tropic jungle." In Chapman's continuation, as in every-
thing that Chapman wrote, there are fine passages in
abundance ; but the reader is wearied by tedious digres-
sions, dull moralising, and violent conceits. There are
couplets in the Tale of Teras (Fifth Sestiad) that for
purity of colour and perfection of form are hardly ex-
celled by anything in the first two sestiads; such pas-
sages, however, are few. Malone stated that Marlowe
left in addition to the two first sestiads "a hundred
lines of the third," but he afterwards retracted the
statement.

Hero and Leander sprang at once into popularity.
Shakespeare, as everybody knows, quoted in As You
lAke It the line, "Who ever loved that loved not at first
sight ? " apostrophising the ill-fated poet, not without a
touch of pity, as "dead shepherd;" Ben Jonson intro-
duced passages of the poem into Every Man in kis
Humour; Henry Petowe, a feeble versifier but a sincere
admirer of Marlowe's genius, had the audacity to write
and in 1598 to publish The Second part of Hero and
Leander; Nashe in Lenten Siuffe speaks of "divine
Musaeus and a diviner Muse than him, Kit Marlowe ; "
Taylor the water-poet tells how he used to sing couplets
of Hero and Leander as he plied his sculls on the Thames.
Sometimes the poem is mentioned in company with Venus
and Adonis. "I have conveyed away," says Harebrain
in Middleton's A mad World my Masters^ " all her wanton

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Introduction. liii

pamphlets ; as Her4> and Ixofukr^ Vienus and Adonis: O
two luscious marrow-bone pies for a young married wife;"
Marlowe's translation of the First Book of Lucan was
entered in the Stationers' Books on 28th September
1593, but no earlier edition than the quarto of 1600 is
now known to exist Lucan's name stood much higher
in Elizabethan times than in our own day. His grandilo*
quence, his artificiality, his frigid rhetoric have bUnded
modem readers to the genuine power which the author
of the Pharsalia undoubtedly possessed Quintilian's
judgment was well expressed — " Lucanus ardens et con-
dtatus et sententiis clarissimus et, ut dicam quod sentio,
ma^ oratoribus quam poeiis imitandusJ^ Lucan was not
a bom poet; there was no spontaneity in his verse,
and even in his best passages he merely keeps on the
border-land between poetry and rhetorical prose. But
he could rap out telling lines, and he had an imposing
vocabulary. Marlowe's version of the first book of the
Pharsaiia is a piece of close translation, more poetical
in some passages than the original, but not doing justice
to Lucan in single lines. In the description of the pro-
digies observed at Rome after Caesar's passage of the
Rubicon the advantage is undoubtedly Marlowe's, but on
the other hand Lucan's pregnant antitheses and telling
phrases are often insufficiently rendered, as where the
famous line

" Victrix cftttsa diis placuit sed victa Catoni,"

is Englished by

" Caesar's cause
The gods abetted, Cato liked the other."

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liv Introduction.

Dyce was so struck with the want of "variety of pause
in the versification, that he was inclined on first thoughts
to consider the translation an early essay. But I venture
to think that the lines are not wanting in variety of pause
to any very noticeable extent. In judging of epic blank
verse, it is difficult to avoid a reference to Milton ; and
of course if we compare the rhythm of Marlowe's transla-
tion with the rhythm of Paradise Lost — cadit qusestio.
But let us dismiss Milton from our minds, and let us
select some of the strongest lines from the translation : —

*' Strange sights appeared; the angry threatening gods
Filled both the earth and seas with prodigies.
Great store of strange and unknown stars were seen
Wandering about the north, and rings of fire
Fly in the air, and dreadful bearded stars,
And comets that presage the fall of kingdoms ;
The flattering sky glittered in oAen flames,
And sundry fiery meteors blazed in heaven.
Now spear-like long, now like a spreading touch ;
Lightning in silence stole forth without clouds.
And, from the northern climate snatching fire,
Blasted the Capitol ; the lesser stars,
Which wont to run their course through empty night,
At noon-day mustered ; Phoebe, having filled
Her meeting horns to match her brother's light.
Struck with th' earth's sudden shadow, waxM pale ;
Titan himself, throned in the midst of heaven.
His burning chariot plunged in sable clouds.
And whelmed the world in darkness, making men
Despair of day ; as did Thyestes' town,
Mycenae, Phoebus flying through the east.
Fierce Mulciber unbarrM Aetna's gate,
Which flam^ not on high, but headlong pitched
Her burning head on bending Hespery.

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IntroducHan. Iv

Coal-black Charybdis whirled a sea of blood.
Fierce mastiyes howled. The vestal fires went oat ;
The flame in Alba, consecrate to Jore^
Parted in twain, and with a double point
Rose, like the Theban brothers' funeral fire.
The earth went oflf her hinges ; and the Alps
Shook the old snow from oflf their trembling laps."

That passage can be read throughout with pleasure.
Though not wholly free from monotony, the lines are
not stiff; the pause ^t the end of the line occurs some-
what too frequently to thoroughly satisfy the ear, but as
a whole, the passage is at once massive and flexible.
I suspect that the translation was intended chiefly as a
metrical experiment. As the rhymed heroics of the
translation of the Amores were the prelude to Hero and
Leander^ so the blank verse of the First Book of Lttcan
may have been a preparatory exercise for a projected
epia The reader will note with some surprise the
unusual number of double-endings in the translation of
Lucan. In less than 700 lines the double-endings are
no fewer than 109 ;^ while in Edward IL and the Jew
of Malta (which are each about thrice the length of the
translation), the double-endings are 107 and 70 respec-
tively. We should naturally expect to find the proportion
higher in dramatic than epic blank verse. In the former
we look for greater freedom and a less accentuated
rhythm; in the latter for a fuller and more sonorous
volume of sound. Milton uses double-endings very
sparingly.

1 These figures are given by Mr. Fleay,

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Ivi Introduction.

The delightful song " Come live with me, and be my
love" was first printed, without the fourth and sixth
stanzas, in the Passionate Pilgrim^ i599* It is well
known that, though Shakespeare's name is on the title-
page, the pieces in this collection are by various hands.
The complete song first appeared, with the author's
name, C*. Marlowe^ subscribed, in that most charming of
Elizabethan anthologies, England* s Helicon^ 1600. Of
all pastoral ditties, " Come live with me " is the best and
most popular. Sir Hugh Evans trolled snatches from it
in the Merry Wives of Windsor; and all lovers of the
Complete Angler remember how Maudlin sang to Piscator
and his pupil the " smooth song made by Kit Marlowe,"
her mother following with the reply of Sir Walter Raleigh
(if his it be): "They were old-fashioned poetry, but
choicely good" Donne and Herrick tried— but all in
vain — to recapture the fresh dainty notes. An exquisite
fragment of Marlowe's, beginning, '^I walked along a
stream for pureness rare," is preserved in Englands
Parnassus y 1600. Dyce thought that the lines were
extracted from some printed composition now unknown ;
but I do not share Dyce's confidence that the editor of
the anthology, Robert Allot, never resorted to manu-
script sources

It is now time to set down what is known of Marlowe's
personal history. One thing it is pleasant to record, —
that he was under the patronage of Sir Thomas Walsing-
ham. To this worthy patron Hero and Leander was
dedicated in 1598 by Edward Blunt, the publisher, in
language which showed a genuine regard for the deceased

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Introduction. Ivii

poet's memoiy. I give the dedication in full, as it has
not received due attention from Marlowe's editors: —
" Sir, — We think not ourselves discharged of the duty we
owe to our friend when we have brought the breathless
body to the earth ; for albeit the eye there taketh his
ever-farewell of that beloved object, yet the impression
of the man that hath been dear unto us, living an after-
life in our mertory, there putteth us in mind of farther
obsequies due unto the deceased; and namely of the
performance of whatsoever we may judge, shall make to
his living credit and to the effecting of his determina-
tions prevented by the stroke of death. By these medita-
tions (as by an intellectual will) I suppose myself executor
to the unhappily deceased author of this poem ; upon
whom knowing that in his lifetime you bestowed many
kind favours, entertaining the parts of reckoning and
worth which you found in him with good countenance and
liberal affection, I cannot but see so far into the will of
him dead, that whatsoever issue of his brain should
chance to come abroad, that the first breath it should
take might be the gentle air of your liking ; for since his
self had been accustomed thereunto, it would prove more
agreeable and thriving to his right children that any
other foster-countenance whatsoever." There is nothing
conventional in such language as this. It is plain that
Edward Blount had a sincere admiration and pity for
Marlowe. " The impression of the man that hath been
dear unto us ! " Surely these are tender and pathetic
words ! When vials of venom were being poured on
the dead man's head, it required some courage to speak
VOL. I. e

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Iviii Introduction.

out generously and manfully ; and, therefore, let us give
honour to the magnanimous publisher.

The name " atheist " has a very ugly sound. '' Agnos-
tic," '^ materialist," and the like, are gentleman-like desig-
nations, but a person who styles himself "atheist"
is regarded in polite society as blunt and boorish. In
Marlowe's time there were no fine distinctions. Any
who ventured to impugn the authenticity of the biblical
narrative spoke and wrote at their own deadly peril In
February 1589 Francis Kett, fellow of Benet College,
Cambridge, — ^the College of which Marlowe had been a
member, — was burnt at Norwich for holding unorthodox
views about the Trinity and about Christ's divinity.
Such being the state of society, prudence would naturally
have dictated that each man should keep his private views
to himself, or at least that he should have explained them
only to his most intimate friends. " In divinity I keep
the road," says that champion of orthodoxy, Sir Thomas
Browne, who exposed the vulnerable points in the
scriptural narrative with more acumen and gusto than
the whole army of " free-thinkers " from Antony Collins
downwards. It would have been well if Marlowe had
'* kept the road." Unfortunately he seems to have lost
no opportunity of expounding his heretical opinions.
The passage referring to Marlowe in Greene's Graafs
Worth of Wity that crazy death-bed wail of a weak and
malignant spirit, has been often quoted before, but must
be given here once again : — " Wonder not (for with thee
will I first beginne), thou Csimous gracer of tragedians,
that Green, who hath said with thee, like the foole in

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Introduction. lix

his heart, 'There is no God,' should now give glorie
unto his greatnesse; for penetrating in his power, his
hand lyes heavy upon me, he hath spoken unto me with
a voyce of thunder, and I have felt [old ed. left] he is a
God that can punish enemies. Why should thy excel-
lent wit, his gift, be so blinded that thou shouldest give no
glory to the giver ? Is it pestilent Machivilian policie that
thou hast studied? O peevish [old ed. punish] follie!
What axe his rules but meere confused mockeries, able
to extirpate in small time the generation of mankinde ?
for if sic volo^ sic iuheOy holde in those that are able to
commaund, and if it be lawfully^ et nefas^ to doo any
thing that is beneficiall, onely tyrants should possesse
the earthe, and they, striving to exceed in tiranny, should
ech to other be a slaughterman, till, the mightyest out-
living all, one stroke were left for Death, that in one age
mans life should end. The brocher of this dyabolicall
atheisme is dead, and in his life had never the felicitie
he aymed at, but, as he beganne in craft, lived in feare,
and ended in dispaire. Quam inscruiabilia sunt Dei
Judida I This murderer of many brethren had his con-
science seared like Cayne; thb betrayer of him that
gave his life for him inherited the portion of Judas ; this
apostata perished as ill as Julian: and wilt thou, my
firiend, be his disciple ? Looke unto mee, by him per-
swaded to that libertie, and thou shalt Ande it an infemall
bondage. I know the least of my demerits merit this
miserable death; but wilfull striving against knowne
truth exceedeth all the terrors of my soule. Deferre not
(with mee) till this last point of extremitie; for little

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Ix Introduction.

knowest thou how in the end thou shalt be visited''
Then follow the well-known references to Nashe (or, as
some think, Lodge), Peele, and the "upstart crow"
Shakespeare. Greene died in September 1592, and the
tract must have been published immediately afterwards.
Its publication caused much excitement, and the
rumour went abroad that the pamphlet was a forgery.
Some attributed it to Chettle, others to Nashe. Both
these writers quickly came forward to disclaim all share
in the authorship. In the preface to Chettle's Kind-
Harfs DrcanUy a tract entered in the Stationers' Books
in December 1592 and published immediately afterwards,
occurs the following passage : —

" About three moneths since died M. Robert Greene,
leaving many papers in sundry book-sellers hands ; among
other, his GrocUsworth of Wit^ in whicb a letter written
to divers play-makers is offensively by one or two of
them taken ; and because on the dead they cannot be
avenged, they wilfully forge in their conceites a living
author; and after tossing it two [to] and fro, no remedy,
but it must light on me. How I have all the time of
my conversing in printing hindred the bitter inveying
against schoUers, it hath been very well knowne, and
how in that I dealt I can sufficiently proove. With
neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and
with one of them \i,e. Marlowe] I care not if I never be :
the other [i>. Shakespeare], whome at that time I did
not so much spare as since I wish I had, for that as I
have moderated the heate of living writers, and might
have used my owne discretion (especially in such a case)

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Introduction. Ixi

the author beeing dead, that I did not, I am as sory as
if the originall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe
have seene his demeanor no lesse civil than he exclent
in the qualitie he professes : besides, divers of worship
have reported his uprightnes of dealing which argues his
honesty, and his facetious grace in writing that aprooves
his art For the first, whose learning I reverence, and,
at the perusing of Greenes booke, stroke out what then
in conscience I thought he in some displeasure writ, or,
had it beene true, yet to publish it was intollerable, him
I would wish to use me no worse than I deserve. I had
onely in the copy this share ; it was il written, as some-
time Greenes hand was none of the best ; licensd it must
be, ere it could bee printed, which could never be if it
might not be read : to be breife, I writ it over, and, as
neare as I could, followed the copy, only in that letter I
put something out, but in the whole booke not a worde
in ; for I protest it was all Greenes, not mine, nor Maister
Nashes, as some uniustly have affirmed.*' From Chettle's
statement it is plain that the passage about Marlowe in
the Groafs Worth of Wtt was not printed in its veno-
mous integrity. Chettle had no personal knowledge of
Marlowe; he judged only from common report It is
to his credit that, prejudiced as he was, he had the good
feeling to temper the virulence of Greene's attack.
Nashe, in the ** Private Epistle to the Printer," prefixed
to Pierce Pennilesse (a tract issued at the close of 1592)
was more vehement in repudiating all connection with
the pamphlet which had given so much offence. '' Other
newes," he writes, '* I am advertised of, that a scald triviall

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Ixii Introduction.

lying pamphlet, cald Cruris Groats-worth of Wit^ is
given out to be of my doing. God never have care
of my soule, but utterly renounce me, if the least word
or sillible in it proceeded from my pen, or if I were any
way privie to the writing or printing of it*' At this time
Nashe was a friend of Marlowe's. In Pierces Superero-
gation (which is dated 27th April, 1593), Gabriel Harvey
accuses Nashe of disloyalty to his friends, among whom
he particularly mentions Marlowe. Doubtless there was
not a word of truth in the charge that Nashe "shamefully
and odiously misuseth every friend or acquaintance (as
he hath served some of his favorablest Patrons, whom,
for certain respects, I am not to name), M. Apis Lapis,
Greene, Marlow, Chettle, and whom not?" In Have
with you to Saffron IVa/den, Nashe exclaims indignantly,
" I never abusd Marloe, Greene, Chettle, in my life, or
anie of my friends that usde me like a friend ; which
both Marloe and Greene (if they were alive) under their
hands would testifie, even as Harry Chettle hath in
a short note here ; " and then follows a note in which
Chettle declares that he never suffered any injury at
Nashe's hands. " Poore deceased Kit Marlowe ! " are
Nashe's words in the Epistle to the Reader prefixed
to the second edition (1594) of Christ s Tears over
Jerusalem.

The burial-register of the Parish Church of St Nicholas,
Deptford, contains the following entry * : — " Christopher

^ First printed in Januaiy xSai, by a writer in a periodical called Tht
Britiih Stage,

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Introduction. Ixiii

Marlow, slain by ffrancis Archer, the x of June 1593."
Thomas Beard the Puritan, Oliver Cromwell's tutor, re-
lates the manner of the poet's death as follows : —

" Not inferior to any of the former in atheisme and
impietiey and equal to al in maner of punishment, was
one of our own nation, of fresh and late memorie, called
Marlin \tn the margin Marlow], by profession a scholier,
brought vp from his youth in the Vniuersitie of Cam-
bridge, but by practise a playmaker and a poet of
scurrilitie, who by giuing too large a swing to his owne
wit, and suffering his lust to haue the full reines, fell (not
without just desert) to that outrage and extremitie, that
hee denied God and his sonne Christ, and not onely in
word blasphemed the Trinitie, but also (as it is credibly
repoite^) wrote bookes against it, affirming our Sauiour
to be but a deceiuer, and Moses to be but a coniurer and
seducer of the people, and the holy Bible to bee but
vaine and idle stories, and all religion but a deuice of
policie. But see what a hooke the Lord put in the
nostrils of this barking dogge ! So it fell out, that as he
purposed to stab one, whom he ought a grudge vnto,
with his dagger, the other party perceiuing so auoyded
the stroke, that, withall catching hold of his wrest, hee
stabbed his owne dagger into his owne head, in such
sort that, notwithstanding all the meanes of suigerie
that could bee wrought, hee shortly after died thereof;
the manner of his death being so terrible (for hee euen
cursed and blasphemed to his last gaspe, and together
with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth), that it
was not only a manifest signe of Gods judgement, but

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Ixiv Introdticiion.

also an horrible and fearefull terror to all that beheld
him. But herein did the justice of God most notably
appeare, in that hee compelled his owne hand, which
had written those blasphemies, to bee the instrument to
punish him, and that in his braine which had deuised the
same." So the passage stands in the later editions. It
is not unimportant to notice that in the first edition, 1597,
for " So it fell out," &c. we find, " It so fell out that in
London Streets as he purposed to stab," &c. The vague
mention of " London Streets " shows that Beard had no
exact information when he put together his highly-
coloured description of the poef s last moments. Francis
Meres in Palladis Tamia, 1598, writes: — As the poet
Lycophron was shot to death by a certain rival of his, so
Christopher Marlowe was stabd to death by a bawdy
serving-man, a riual of his in his lewde love " (fol. 286).
From Vaughan's Golden Grove, 1600, Dyce quotes a
somewhat different account: — ''Not inferiour to these
was one Christopher Marlow, by profession a play-maker,
who, as it is reported, about 14 yeres agoe wrote a booke
against the Trinitie. But see the effects of God's justice 1
It so happened that at Detford, a little village about
three miles distant from London, as he meant to stab
with his ponyard one named Ingram that had inuited
him thither to a feast and was then playing at tables, hee
quickly perceyving it, so avoyded the thrust, that withall
drawing out his dagger for his defence, hee stabd this
Marlow into the eye, in such sort that, his braynes
comming out at the daggers point, hee shortly after dyed.
Thus did God, the true executioner of diuine iustice,

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Introduction, Ixv

worke the end of impious atheists" (sig. c 4, ed 1608).
I must now direct the reader's attention to a strange
" Sonet " and stranger " Postcript " and " Glosse," printed
at the end of Gabriel Harvey's Newe Letter of Notable
Contents^ i593- Dyce (following Collier) quoted the
last line of the " Sonet," but none of Marlowe's editors
has referred to the " Postcript " and " Glosse ; " so I
make no apology for giving the pieces in full

"SONET.

GORGON OR THE WONDERFVLL YEARS.

St. Fame disposed to cunnycaich the world
Uprtat^da wonderment ^Eighty Eight ;
The Earth, addreading to be overhurld.
What now auailes, quoth She, my baUance weight :
The Circle smyVd to see the Center feare :
The wonder was no wonder fell that yeare.
Wonders enhaunse their powre in numbers odd :
The fatdll yeare ofyeares is Ninety Three :
Parma hath hist, Demaine entreats the rodd ;
Warre wondreth Peace and Spaine in Fraunce to sec,
Brave Eckenberg the dowty Bassa shames.
The Christian Neptune Turkish Vulcane tames.
Navarre wooes Roome, Charlmaine giues Guise the Phy :
Weepe Powles, thy Tamberlaine voutsafes to dye,

L'ENUOY.

The hugest miracle remains behinde^

The second Shakerley Rash-Swash to binde.

The Writers Postcript, or a friendly Caueat to the second Shakerley
oC Powles.

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Ixvi Introduction.

SONET.

Slumbting I lay m m^anchoiy bed
Before the dawning of the sanguin light ;
fVhen Eccho shrill or some Familiar Spright
Butted an Epitaph into my hed,
Magnifique Mindes bred of Gargantnas race
In grisly weedes His Obsequies waiment [sic]
Whose Corps on Powles, whose mind triuph'd on Kent,
Scorning to bate Sir Rodomont an ace.
/ muid awhile, and, having mus'd awhile,
Jesu {quoth J) is that Gargantua minde
Conquered and left no Scanderbeg behinae f
Vowed he not to Bowles a Second bile ?
What bile or kibe ? {(quoth that same early spright)
Have you forgot the Scanderbegging wight.

GLOSSE.

Is it a Dreamed or is the Highest minde

That ever haunted Bowles or hunted winde

Bereft of that same shy-surmounting breath,

That breath that taught the Ttmpany to swell t

He and the Blague contended for the game :

The hawty man extoUes his hideous thoughtes.

And gloriously insuites uponpoore soules

That plague themselves: for faint harts plagne themselyes.

The tyrant Sickness of base minded slaues

Oh how it dominet^s in Coward Lane I

So Surquidy rang out his larum knell

When he had girtCd [grin'd ?] at many a dolefoill bell.

The graund Disease disdain'd his Toade Conceit

And smiling at his Tamberlaine contempt

Sternly struck home the peremptory stroke.

He that nor feared God nor dreaded Diu*ll,

Nor ought admired but his wondrous selfa

Lthejunos gawdy Bird that proudly stares

On gHttringfon of his triumphant taile.

Or like the ugly Bugg that scorned to dy.

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Introductwn. Ixvii

And mounUs 9f Glory reat^d in towering witi —
Alas J but Babell Pride must kiss the pitt.

L'ENUOY.

Powles steeple, and a hugyer thing is downe :
Beware the next Bull-beggar of the towne.

Fata immatura yagantor."

Harvey's Newe Letter is dated September 1593, and
Marlowe died in the June preceding. The drift of the
"goggle^yed sonet of Gorgon" (as Nashe terms it) and
" L'enuoy " plainly is, — " Marlowe is dead ; it remains to
muzzle^Nashe." The epitaph in the " Postcript " certainly
refers to Marlowe, and the meaning of the extraordinary
lines " I mus'd awhile, ** &&, is the same as in the previous
sonnet But what are we to make of the Glosse ? The
only sense to be got out of the lines is that Marlowe had
fallen a victim to the plague. We know that the plague
was raging at that time in the metropolis. Probably
Gabriel Harvey was staying in the country, to be out of
the reach of infection,^ when he wrote his Newe Letter,
Hearing the report of Marlowe's death he had taken it
for granted, when he raised his whoop of exultation, that
the poet had died of the plague. We may be sure that,
if he had been acquainted at the time with the true
account of Marlowe's tragic end, he would have gloated
over every detail with ghoul-like ferocity. Though
Marlowe took no active part, so far as we know, in
supporting Nashe, he seems not to have attempted to

1 His antagonist Nashe had removed to the countiy in 1592 for safety
as we learn from the PriTate Epistle to the printer prefixed to the first
aotborised edition of Pierce Pemlesse,

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Ixviii Introduction.

conceal his contempt for the Harveys. In Have with you
to Saffron Waidmy Nashe reports a saying of Marlowe's
about Gabriel's younger brother, the Rev. Richard
Harvey : — " Kit Marloe was wont to say that he was an
asse, good for nothing but to preach of the Iron Age."
If Marlowe was accustomed to deliver his opinion about
the Harveys after that fashion, the doctor's animosity
is explicable. In Pierce's Supererogation (p. 62) the
vindictive writer exclaimes : — " His \i.e. Nashe's] gayest
flourishes are but Gascoigne's weedes or Tarleton's
trickes, or Greene's crankes or Marlowe's bravadoes^'
In the same tract he uses the term " Marloweism " in the
sense of "irreverence."

It must be frankly conceded that Marlowe not only
abandoned Christianity, but had the reputation of lead-
ing a vicious life. In the Retume from Pemassus^ an
anonymous academical play, printed in 1606, but acted
before the death of Queen Elizabeth, while high praise is
paid to his genius, regret is expressed for the disorderli-
ness of his life : —

" Marlowe was happy in his buskiDfd] Muse, —
Alas, unhappy in his life and end t
Pitty it is that wit so ill should dwell,
Wit lent from heaven, but vices sent from hell.
Our theater hath lost, Pluto hath got
A tragick penman for a driery plot."

Among the Harleian MSS. (6853, foL 520) is a Note^
"contayninge the opinion of one Christofer Marlye,

1 First printed by Ritson in his Observations on Warton*s History of
English Poetry. The ' * Note ** will be found in an appendix to Vol. III.

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Introduction. Ixix

concemynge bis damnable opinions and judgment of
Relygion and scome of Gods worde.'' It is a comfort
to know tbat the rufiSan wbo drew up the charges, a cer-
tain " Rychard Bame," was hanged ^ at Tyburn on 6th
December 1594* Doubtless Bame was backed by some
person or persons of power and position. It was a
deliberate attempt on the part of some fuiatics to
induce the public authorities to institute a prosecution
for blasphemy against the poet How the charges
would have been met it is not easy to say; probably
his friends — particularly his patron Sir Thomas Wal-
singham — would have been powerful enough to avert
any serious danger. To a modem reader many of the
charges put forward by Bame seem too silly to deserve
any serious attention. If Marlowe had been a man of
such abandoned principles as his enemies represented, I
strongly doubt whether Chapman, who was distinguished
for strictness of life, would have cherished his memory
with such affection and respect To my mind the
apostrophe to Marlowe in the Third Sestiad of Hero ami
Ltander shows clearly that the two poets were on terms
of intimacy, and I fail to understand how Dyce arrived
at the opposite conclusion. It is much to be regretted
that no copy can now be found of the elegy on Marlowe
written by Nashe and prefixed to the Tragedy of Dido,
1594. The elegy was seen by Bishop Tanner, who in
his account of Marlowe writes, — " Hanc [sc. Tragedy of
Dido] perfecit et edidit Tho. Nashe, Lond. 1594, 4to. —

^ This fact was discovered by Malone from the Stationers' Registers,
Book B^ p. 316.

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Ixx Introduction.

Petowius in praefatione ad secundam partem Herais et
Leandri multa in Marlovii, commendationem adfert;
hoc etiam facit Tho. Nash in Carmine tlegiaco tragadia
Didonis prafixo'^ in obitum Christoph. Marlovii, ubi
quatuor ejus tragoediaram roentionem facit, necnon et
alterius De Duce Guisio " (Bid/. Brit., p. 5 1 2). Petowe's
encomium, to which Tanner refers, runs thus : —

** Quicke-sighted spirits, — this suppos*d Apollo, —
Conceit no other but th* admired Mario ;
Mario admir'd, whose honney-flowing vaine
No English writer can as yet attaine ;
Whose name in Fame's immortall treasurie
Truth shall record to endles memorie ;
Mario, late mbrtall, now fram'd all diuine.
What soule more happy then that soule of thine ?
Liue still in heauen thy soule, thy fame on earth !
Thou dead, of Marios Hero findes a dearth.
Weepe, aged Tellus t all on earth* complaine !
Thy chiefe-bome faire hath lost her faire againe :
Her faire in this is lost, that Mario's want
Inforceth Hero's faire be wonderous scant.
Oh, had that king of poets breathed longer,
Then had feiire beautie's fort been much more stronger !

I Warton, in his Hist of Eng, Poetry^ mentions this elegy of Nashe*s,
but it is doubtful whether he ever saw it. In Malone's copy of Dido
(presenred in the Bodleian) is the following MS. note : — " He [Warton]
informed me by letter that a copy of this play was in Osborne's catalogue
in the year 1754 ; that he then saw it in his shop (together with several
of Mr. Oldys's books that Osborne had purchased) and that the el^^
in question, ' on Marlowe*s untimely death,* was inserted immediately
after the title-page ; that it mentioned a play of Mariowe's entitled the
Duke of Guise and four others, but whether particularly by name he
could not recollect. Unluckily he did not purchase this rare piece, and
it is now God knows where."

s Olded. "All earth on earth.*'

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Introduction. Ixxi

His goulden pen had dos'd her ao about.

No bastard seglet's quill, the world throughout.

Had been of force to marre what he had made ;

For why they were not expert in that trade.

What mortall soule with Mario might contend,

That could 'gainst reason force him stoope or bend ?

Whose siluer-charming toung mou*d such delight,

That men would shun their sleepe in still darke night

To meditate vpon his goulden lynes.

His rare conceyts, and sweet-according rimes.

But Mario, still-admired Mario's gon

To line with beautie.in Elyzium ;

Immortal beautie, who desires to heare

His sacred poesies, sweete in euery eare :

Mario must frame to Orpheus' melodie

Himnes all diuine to make heauen harmonie.

There euer Hue the prince of poetrie.

Line with the lining in etemitie ! *'

In his preface "To the quick-sighted Reader,** Petowe
says that his poem was *' the first fruits of an unripe wit,
done at certaine vacant howers." The poem has little
merit, but the young writer's admiration for Marlowe is
genuine and striking.

Other admirers of Marlowe were not silent. George
Peele, in his " Prologue to the Honour of the Garter,"
written immediately after the poet's death, has these

lines: —

" Unhappy in thine end,
Marley, the Muses' darling for thy verse,
Fit to write passions for the souls below.
If any wretched souls in passion speak."

•*J. M." in a MS. poem written in 1600 (quoted by
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps in his Dfe of Shakespeare)^ speaks
with tenderness of "kynde Kit Marloe." In a famous

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Ixxii Introduction.

passage of the Hierarchie of the Blessed AngelSy 1635,
Heywood writes : —

" Mario, renown'd for his rare art and wit,
Could ne'er attain beyond the name of Kit,
Although his Hero and Leander did
Merit addition rather."

In Michael Drayton's admirable "Epistle to Henry
Reynolds of Poets and Poesy," 1627, occur the fine
lines which have been so frequently quoted : —

" Nexti Mario w, bathed in the Thespian springs,
Had in him those brave translunary things
That the first poets had ; his raptures were
All air and fire which made his verses clear ;
For that fine madness still he did retain,
Which rightly should possess a poet's brain."

Much has been written of Marlowe in glowing verse
and eloquent prose by writers of our own time; but
not even Mr. Swinburne's impassioned praise is finer
than the pathetic Death of Marlowe^ published nearly
half a century ago by the poet who passed so recently,
full of years, from the ingratitude of a forgetful genera-
tion.

Mr. J. A. Symonds has defined the leading motive of
Marlowe's work as L Amour de V Impossible — " the love
or lust of unattainable things." Never was a poet fired
with a more intense aspiration for ideal beauty and ideal
power. As some adventurous Greek of old might have
sailed away, with warning voices in his ears, past the

1 Old ed.** Neat."

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Introduction, Ixxiii

pillars of Hercules in quest of fabled islands beyond the
sun, so Marlowe started on his lonely course, careless of
tradition and restraint, resolved to seek and find '' some
world far from ours" where the secret springs of Know-
ledge should be opened and he should touch the lips
of Beauty. What Marlowe might have achieved if his
life had hot been so cruelly cut short it were vain to
speculate. The enthusiasm which has led some of his
admirers to hint that he might have seriously contested
Shakespeare's claim to supremacy is uncritical and
absurd. Chapman speaks of men

" That haye strange gifts in nature but no soul
Diffused quite through to make them of a piece."

All the Elizabethan dramatists, in greater or less
degree, possessed these "strange gifts in nature," but
in Shakespeare alone was the soul "diffused quite
through." Marlowe showed stupendous power in exciting
terror and pity ; but it is in single situations rather than
in the clear-eyed development of the plot that his power
is seen at its highest. Shakespeare's sympathy with
humanity in all its phases was infinite ; Marlowe was a
lofty egoist, little moved by the joys and sorrows of
ordinary mortals. The gift of radiant humour, which
earned for Shakespeare the title of " gentle " among his
contemporaries, was denied to Marlowe. There are
passages of Marlowe that for majesty and splendour can
never be forgotten ; but before the magical cadences of
Antony and Cleopatra all the voices of the world fall
dumb. Shakespeare began his career as a pupil of
Marlowe; the lesser poet was self-taught More than
VOL I. /

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Ixxiv Introduction.

fifty years of life was granted to Shakespeare ; Marlowe
went to his grave before he had reached his thirtieth year.^

It remains to discuss briefly certain plays in which
critics have alleged that Marlowe was concerned. These
are the Taming of a ShreWy 1594 ; Titus Andronicus; the
old King John ; and the 3 Parts of Henry VI, The
wretched Larutn for London^ and still more wretched
Locrifu may be at once dismissed as unworthy of the
slightest notice.

The Taming of a Shrew contains a number of
passages that closely resemble, or are identical with,
passages in Marlowe's undoubted plays — particularly
Tamburlaine. This fact alone would make us suspect
that Marlowe was not the author ; for poets of Marlowe's
class do not repeat themselves in this wholesale manner.
But when we see how maladroitly, without the slightest
regard to the context, these passages are introduced,
then we may indeed wonder that any critic could have

1 Some critics have seen an allusion to Marlowe in Midsummer
Nigkfs Dream^ v. i : —

** The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'*
Others suppose that he was the rival to whom Shakespeare refers in the
85th and 86th Sonnets. — There is no evidence to support these theories.
^ Mr. Collier had a copy of this piece with the following doggerel
rhymes written on the title-page :—

*' Our famous Marloe had in this a hand,
As from his fellowes I doe vnderstand.
The printed copie doth his Muse much wrong ;
But natheles manie lines ar good and strong;
Of Paris Massaker sach was the fate ;
A perfitt coppie came to hand to late."
A very ridiculous piece of forgery I

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Introduction. Ixxv

been so insensate as to attribute the authorship to Mar-
lowe. Here is a fair sample of the writing : —

*• Father, I swear by Ibis' golden beak
More fair and radiant is my bonny Kate
Than silver Xanthus when he doth embrace
The ruddy Simois at Ida's feet.
And care not thou, sweet Kate, how I be clad ;
Thou shalt have garments wrought of Median silk
Enchased with precious jewels fetched from far
By Italian merchants that with Russian stems
Plough up huge furrows in the Terrene main."

This i>assage is patched up from the First Part of Tarn-
hurlainei cf. I, 2 IL 95-6, 19 1-2. The reference to
"Ibis' golden beak" (in imitation of i Tamb, iv. 3, 1. 37)
is delightfully ludicrous. In another passage we have a

mention of

" The massy robe that late adorned
The stately legate of the Persian king,"

where (as Dyce remarked) the allusion would be quite
unintelligible unless we remembered the lines in 2 Tamb.
iiL 2 —

*• And I sat down clothed with a massy robe
Which late adorned the Afric potentate. "

Occasionally lines are filched from Fausius : —

*' And should my love, as erst did Hercules,
Attempt to pass the burning vaults of Hell,
I would with piteous looks and pleasing words.
As once did Orpheus with his harmony
And ravishing sound 0/ his melodious harp^
Entreat grim Pluto," &c.

The italicised line is ftom scene vi. (L 29) oi Faustus,

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Ixxvi Introduction.

In my judgment the anonymous writer was sometimes
engaged in imitating Marlowe and sometimes in bur-
lesquing him. But be this as it may, the absurdity of
attributing the piece to Marlowe is flagrant The author
of the Taming of a Shrew was a genuine humourist ;
and Mr. Swinburne is speaking within bounds when he
calls him " Of all the pre-Shakespeareans incomparably
the truest, the richest, the most powerful and original
humourist." Marlowe had little or no humour.

We may therefore safely dismiss the Taming of a
Shrew ; but with Titus Andronicus the case is different
As I re-read this play after coming straight from the
study of Marlowe, I find again and again passages that,
as it seems to me, no hand but his could have written.
It is not easy in a question of this kind to set down in
detail reasons for our belief. Marlowe's influence per-
meated so thoroughly the dramatic literature of his day,
that it is hard sometimes to distinguish between master
and pupil. When the master is writing at his best there
is no difficulty, but when his work is hasty and ill-
digested, or has been left incomplete and has received
additions from other hands, then our perplexity is great
In our disgust at the brutal horrors that crowd the pages
of Titus Andronicus^ we must beware of blinding our-
selves to the imaginative powqr that marks much of the
writing. In Aaron's soliloquy at the opening of act ii,
it is hard to believe that we are not listening to the
young Marlowe. There is the ring of Tamburlaine in
such lines as these : —

** Aa when the golden sun salutes the morn,

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Introduction. Ixxvii

And« having gilt the ocean with hia beams,
Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach,
And overlooks the highest-peering hills."

Both rhythm and diction in the following lines remind
us of Marlowe's earliest style : —

" Madam, though Venns govern your desires,
Saturn is dominator over mine :
What signifies my deadly-standing eye,
My silence and my cloudy melancholy.
My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls
Even as an adder when she doth unroll
To do some fatal execution ?
No, madam, these are no venereal signs :
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand.
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head."

Aaron's confession of his villainies (in v. i) will recall
to every reader the conversation between Barabas and
Ithamore in the third scene of the second act of the
Jew €f Malta, The character of Aaron was either drawn
by Marlowe or in close imitation of him ; and it seems
to me more reasonable to suppose that Titus Andronicus
is in the main a crude early work of Marlowe's than that
any imitator could have written with such marked power.
But the great difficulty lies in determining to whom we
should assign the frantic ravings of old Andronicus.
They appear to be by another hand than Marlowe's;
and they cannot, with any degree of plausibility, be
assigned to Shakespeare. Lamb suggested that they
recall the writer who contributed the marvellous " addi-
tions" to the Spanish Tragedy ^ — a suggestion that
deserves more attention than it has received. What

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Ixxviii Introduction.

share Shakespeare had in the play I must confess myself
at a loss to divine. I have sometimes thought that there
are traces of his hand in the very first scene, — and not
beyond it ; that he began to revise the play, and gave up
the task in disgust. It is of Shakespeare rather than of
Marlowe that we are reminded in such lines as —
" Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?

Draw near them then in being merciful :

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.'*

But however closely we may look for them, we shall find
very few Shakespearean passages. Of Marlowe's earliest
style we are constantly and inevitably reminded

That Marlowe had a share in all three parts of Henry
VL is, I think, certain. The opening lines of the First
Part at once recall the language and rhythm of Tambur-
iaine, and the closing lines are suggestive of a passage of
Edward 11. The opening lines are : —

" Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night !

Comets, importing change of limes and states,

Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,

And with them scourge the bad revolting stars

That have consented unto Henry's death! "

Compare //. Tamburlaine^ v. 3 : —

<' Weep, heavens, and vanish into liquid tears !
Fall, stars that govern his nativity,
And summon all the shining lamps of heaven
To cast their bootless fires to the earth,
And shed their feeble influence in the air ;
Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds ! '*

A closer parallel, whether as regards rhythm or expression,
could hardly be found. The two lines with which the
First Part closes are : —

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Introduction. Ixxix

*' Margaret shall now be queen and rule the king,
But I will rule both her, the king and realm."

Very similar are Mortimer's words in Edward K,
V. I : —

" The queen and Mortimer
Shall rule the realm, the queen ; and none rules us."

To Shakespeare we can assign with certainty only the scene
in the Temple Garden and Talbot's last battle, to which
may be perhaps added Suffolk's courtship of Margaret
In my judgment the rest of the play is chiefly Marlowe's.
I would £ain shift from Marlowe's shoulders to Peele's
the scene in which the memory of Joan of Arc is so
shamefully slandered; but I am convinced that the
composition of that scene was beyond Peele's powers.

It is well known that the Second and Third Parts of
Henry VL represent a revision of two older Plays — The
First Fart of the Contention betwixt the two famous
houses of York and Lancaster (1594) and the True
Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (1595) ; but it is not,
perhaps, so generally known that the revised editions
preserve passages by Marlowe which are not found in the
earlier editions. The subject is one of the highest
possible interest, but for adequate discussion a lengthy
essay would be needed. It is important to note that the
1619 edition of the Whole Contention preserves in some
passages a text partially revised. The fact would seem
to be that there existed several copies of the plays in
various stages of revision. There is no possibility of
discovering the early unrevised text in its integrity. The
first editions (1594 and 1595) present a text that had

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Ixxx Introduction.

undergone a certain amount of revision. It is more than
probable that in many passages of the earliest editions
we have a garbled text ; for even Peele or Greene might
have reasonably considered themselves aggrieved at
being held responsible for such lines as these : —

" So lie thon there and breathe thy last
What's here ? the sign of the Castle ?
Then the prophecy is come to i)ass,
For Somerset was forewarned of Castles,
The which he always did observe.
And now, behold, under a paltry ale-house sign.
The Castle in St Albans,
Somerset hath made the wizard famous by his death."

These jerky disjointed lines must have been hashed
up from short-hand notes. I will now state my own
views very briefly. I hold that Shakespeare worked on a
full and accurate MS. copy of the early plays, and that
these early plays were in large part by Marlowe. Unless
we suppose that Shakespeare had the full text of the early
plays before I do not know how we are to account for the
introduction into the revised plays of passages by
Marlowe not found in the earlier copies. Critics have
pointed out that the opening lines of act iv. of 2 Henry
VL ("The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day," &c.)
are unmistakably Marlowe's; and these lines are not
found in the Contention. It is plain that Shakespeare's
copy of these plays was more complete than the early
printed copy. The difficulty lies in determining how
much of the additional matter found in the later copies
belongs to Shakespeare and how much to Marlowe.

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Introduction. Ixxxi

This is a question which I cannot here discuss. It may
be true, as Mr. Swinburne says, that there is not in the
later plays " a single passage of tragic or poetic interest,"
beyond Marlowe's power; but there can be no doubt
that Shakespeare corrected, curtailed, and amplified
Marlowe's work to a very large extent. Marlowe appears
to have worked early and late at the Conteniian ; in
one scene we find passages that recall the diction and
rhythm of Tamimrlaine^ in another we are reminded of
Edward Ijy Here are some lines that belong to the
early period : —

** Dark Night, dread Night, the silence of the Night,
Wherein the Furies mask in hellish troops,
Send up I charge you from Cocytus' lake
The spirit Askalon to come to me,
And pierce the bowels of the centric earth,
And hither come in twinkling of an eye."

The verb "mask" occurs several times in Tamburlaine;
not in the later plays. In i Tamburlaine^ iv. 4, we

find:—

" Ye Furies, that can mask invisible,
Dive to the bottom of Avemus' pool," &c.

Another passage of the Contention in Marlowe's earliest
style is to be found in the scene where the king is
presented by Iden with Cade's head : —

'* O let me see that head that in this life
Did work me and my land such cruel spite !
A visage stern, coal-black his curled locks ;

1 Dyce and Mr. Fleay have collected several instances of verbal
resemblance between the Contention and Edward II,

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Ixxxii Introduction.

Deep-trenched furrows in his frowning brow
Presageth war-like humours in his life."

Compare // Tamhurlaine^ i. 3 :—

•* And in ^t furrows of his frffwning brows
Harbours revenge, war, death, and cruelty."

In the Contention we find Marlowe's earliest and latest
work ; but in the Second and Third Parts of Henry VL
we find for the most part merely his latest work. For
eicample, the two passages I have just quoted are not
in the revised plays. But I cannot now pursue this
subject.

71u Troublesome Reign of King John^ i59i> is an
intolerably wooden piece of work. From the first line
to the last we find scarcely a single touch of poetry or
power. Earless and unabashed must be the critic who
would charge Marlowe with any complicity in the author-
ship of a play that would rank low among the worst
productions of Greene or Peele. The only piece of
evidence to connect the play with Marlowe is a passage
in the Prologue : —

** You that with friendly grace of smooth^ brow
Have entertained the Scythian Tamburlaine
And given applause unto an infidel,
Vouchsafe to welcome with like courtesy
A warlike Christian and your countryman.''

But so far from indicating that the author of Tambur-
laine had written the piece that was about to be presented,
these lines rather show that the "warlike Christian" was
intended to oust the "infidel" from popular favour, —

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Introduction. Ixxxiii

that the new play was the production of some obscure
rival of Marlowe's. The fact that expressions found in
TanUmrlaine occur in the Troublesome Reign^ is, in the
absence of other evidence, of no importance ; for Mar-
lowe's play was in all men's mouths at the time, and
every hack-writer could filch a phrase or two from the
man whom they were so anxious to supplant. It is im-
possible to select from this poor spiritless chronicle-play
a dozen consecutive lines that to a good ear would pass
as Marlowe's.

So much, then, for Marlowe's relation to plays of
doubtful authorship. Among the MS. plays destroyed
by Warburton's cook was a comedy entitled the MaiderCs
Holiday. The piece had been entered in the Stationer's
Books on April 8th, 1654, as a joint-production of
Marlowe and Day. Our knowledge of Day does not
b^n before 1599, and it is hardly probable that he was
writing before that date. If the comedy was written by
Marlowe and Day, then we must suppose that Day
completed a sketch that had been left by Marlowe, or
that he revised the play on the occasion of a revival ;
but I very much doubt whether Marlowe ever wrote a
comedy.

In 1657 Kirkman, the well-known bookseller, published
Lusfs Dominion ; or the Lascivious Queen, A Tragedie
written by Chrisiofer Marloe^ Gent, This is a play of
some power, but it was certainly not written by Marlowe.
Collier showed conclusively that there are references to
historical events that happened after Marlowe's death.

I hasten to bring these remarks to a close. So much

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Ixxxiv Introduction.

has been admirably written about Marlowe by excellent
critics, that I feel I have trespassed on the patience of
the reader by detaining him so long. Far be it from me
to attempt to weigh Marlowe's genius. So long as high
tragedy continues to have interest for men, Time shall
lay no hands on the works of Christopher Marlowe.
Though

" He who showed such great presumption.
Is hidden now beneath a little stone,"

his pages still pulse with ardent life. In all literature
there are few figures more attractive, and few more
exalted, than this of the young poet who swept from the
English stage the tatters of barbarism, and habited
Tragedy in stately robes ; who was the first to conceive
largely, and exhibit souls struggling in the bonds of
circumstance. .

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TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.

IN TWO PARTS.

VOU 1.

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Two editions of Tamburlaine—on^ in 4to, the other in 8vo —
were published in 1590. Of the 4to we have only the title-page
and the Address to the Readers, which were found pasted in a copy
of the First Part of Tamburlaine preserved in the Bridgewater
CdUection. In the Bodleian Library there is a perfect copy of the
1590 8vo of both parts. The title-pages of the 8vo and 4to agree
▼erbatim, and run as follows : —

Tamburlaine the Great, Who, from a Scythian Shephearde by
his retre and woonderfuU Conquests, became a most puissant and
nti^Uj^ Monarque, And {for his tyranny, and terrour in Warre)
was tearmed. The Scourge of Cod, Deuided into two Tragiccdl
Discourses, as they were sundrie times shewed upon Stages in the
Ciiie of London. By the right honorable the lord Admyrali, his
seruauntes, Now first, and newlie published, London, Printed by
Richard /hones : at the signeofthe Rose and Crowne neere Holbome
Bridge, 1590.

The half-title of the Second Pari in the 8vo is—

TTu Second Part of The bloody Conquest of mighty Tamburlaine,
With his impassionate fury, for the death of his Lady 'and louefaire
Zenocrate: hisfourme afexhortaaon and discipline to his three sons,
and the maner of his own death.

In the Garrick Collection, British Museum, there is an 8vo
edition of both parts dated 1592 ; the 8vos of 1590 and 1592 are
probably the same book with a different title-page. Langbaine and
Halliwell mention an edition of 1593 ; and Collier gives the full
title of an edition published in 1597 (Cunningham's Marlowe, p. 368).
The two parts were reissued In 1605-6 with the following titles : —

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( 4 )

Tamburlaine the Create, IVho, from the state of a Shepheard in
Scythia, by his rare and wonderfull Conquests became a most puissant
and mighty Monarque. London Printed for Edward White, and
are to be solde at the little North doore of Saint Paules-Church^ at the
signe of the Gunne, 1605. 410.

Tamburlaine the Create, With his impassionate furity for the
death of his Lady and Louefair Zenccrate: his forme of exhortaticn
and discipline to his three Sonnes, and the manner of his owne death.
The second part, London Printed by E, A, for Ed. White, and are
to be solde at his Shop neere the little North doore of Saint Paules
Church at the Signe of the Cun, 1606. 4to.

I have had the 1592 8vo and the 1605-6 4to constantly before
rae ; but Djce was so thoroughly accurate in recording the readings
of the old copies, that little or nothing in the way of collation was
needed. My friend Mr. C. H. Firth, of Balliol College, Oxford,
kindly referred to the 1590 8vo to see whether any light could be
thrown on certain corrupt passages ; but in all cases the Bodleian
copy agreed with the 1592 8to. I have not thought it necessary to
follow Dyce in recording the misprints and unnecessary changes of
reading that occur in ed. 1605-6. Where the reading of the later
copy seemed a distinct improvement, I have adopted it ; but where-
ever I have departed from the 8vo, I have been careful to record
the original reading in a footnote.

The printer's address, from the 1592 8vo, is as follows : —

To THE GENTLUMEN-READERS AND OTHERS THAT TAKE PLEASURE

IN Reading Histories.

Gentlemen and courteous readers whosoever : I have here published
in print, for your sakes, the two tragical discourses of the Scythian
shepherd Tamburlaine, that became so great a conqueror and so mighty
a monarch. My hope is, that they will be now no less acceptable unto
you to read after your serious affairs and studies than they have been
lately delightful for many of you to see when the same were shewed in
London upon stages. I have purposely omitted^ and left out some

1 I hare touched upon this point in the Inirodmeiiom.

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( 5 )

fond and frivolous gestures, digressing, and, in my poor opinion, far
unmeet for the matter, which I thought might seem more tedious unto
the wise than any way else to be regarded, though haply they have been
of some vain-conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what time they were
shewed upon the stage in their graced deformities : nevertheless now to
be mixtnred in print with such matter of worth, it would prove a great
dhgrace to so honourable and stately a histoiy. Great folly were it in
me to commend unto your wisdoms either the eloquence of the author
that writ them or the worthiness of the matter itself. I therefore leave
onto your learned censures both the one and the other, and myself the
poor printer of them unto your most courteous and favourable pro-
tection ; which if you vouchsafe to accept, you shall evermore bind me
to employ what travail and service I can to the advancing and pleasuring
of your excellent degree.

Yours, most humble at commandment,

R[ichard] J[ones], printer.

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TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT,
part tbe firfit

THE PROLOGUE.

From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits,
And such conceits as downage keeps in pay,
Vfe'n lead you to the stately tent of war,
"Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine :
Threatening the world with high astounding terms,
And scourging kingdoms with his conquering swoid.
View but his picture in this tragic glass,
And then applaud his fortune as you please.

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PERSONS REPRESENTED.^

Mycetes, ATifig of Persia,
CosROK, his Brother.

Meander, i

Menaphon, > Persiam Ca^ains,

Theridamas, )

Tamburlaine, a Scythian Shepherd,

Techelles, \ ,. ^jg,

UsuMCASANE, ^^^ Officers.

MAgSctes, {^-^'^"Zon^fr.

Capolin, an Egyptian Captain.

Bajazeth, Emperor of the 7\trks.

King ^Arabia.

KingefYcx^

King of Morocco.

King ofArgici.

Soi£tn ofl^ypt

Governor ^Dammscas.

Philemus, a Messenger.

Zenocrate, Daughter of the Saldan of Egypt,

Anippe, her Maid.

Zabina, Empress of the Turks.

Ebea, her Maid,

Virgins of Damascus.

1 There is no list of characters in the old copies.

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TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.

part tj^e tfxssL

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

£nUr Mycetes, Cosroe, Meander, Theridamas,
Ortvgius, Ceneus, Menaphon, wM others.

Myc, Brother Cosroe, I find myself aggrieved,
Yet insufficient to express the same ;
For it requires a great and thundering speech :
Good brother, tell the cause unto my Lords ;
I know you have a better wit than L

Cos. Unhappy Persia, that in former age
Hast been the seat of mighty conquerors,
That, in their prowess and their policies.
Have triumphed over Afric and the bounds
Of Europe, where the sun scarce dares appear i

For freezing meteors and congealM cold,
Now to be ruled and governed by a man
At whose birthday Cynthia with Saturn joined,
And Jove, the Sun, and Mercury denied

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lo The First Part of [act i.

To shed their ^ influence in his fickle brain !

Now Turks and Tartars shake their swords at thee,

Meaning to mangle all thy provinces.

Myc. Brother, I see your meaning well enough,
And through your planets I perceive you think
I am not wise enough to be a king, 20

But I refer me to my noblemen
That know my wit, and can be witnesses.
I might command you to be slain for this :
Meander, might I not ?

Aleand, Not for so small a fault, my sovereign lord

Myc I mean it not, but yet I know I might ;
Yet live ; yea live, Mycetes wills it sa
Meander, thou, my faithful counsellor,
Declare the cause of my conceived grief,
Which is, God knows, about that Tamburlaine, 30

That, like a fox in midst of harvest time,
Doth prey upon my flocks of passengers ;
And, as I hear, doth mean to pull my plumes :
Therefore 'tis good and meet for to be wise.

Meand, Oft have I heard your Majesty complain
Of Tamburlaine, that sturdy Scythian thief.
That robs your merchants of Persepolis
Trading by land unto the Western Isles,
And in your confines with his lawless train
Daily commits incivil outrages, 40

Hoping (misled by dreaming prophecies)
To reign in Asia, and with barbarous arms
To make himself the monarch of the East ;

1 Old copies'* his."

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SCENE 1.1 Tamburlaine the Great. 1 1

But ere he march in Asia, or display
His vagrant ensign in the Persian fields,
Your Grace hath taken order by Theridamas,
Charged with a thousand horse, to apprehend
And bring him captive to your Highness' throne.

Myc, Full true thou speak'st, and like thjrself, my
Lord,
Whom I may term a Damon for thy love : 50

Therefore 'tis best, if so it like you all,
To send my thousand horse incontinent ^
To apprehend that paltry Scythian.
How like you this, my honourable Lords ?
Is't not a kingly resolution ?

Cos, It cannot choose because it comes from you.

Myc, Then hear thy charge, valiant Theridamas,
The chiefest captain of Mycetes' host.
The hope of Persia, and the very legs
Whereon our State doth lean as on a staff, 60

That holds us up, and foils our neighbour foes :
Thou shalt be leader of this thousand horse.
Whose foaming gall with rage and high disdain
Have sworn the death of wicked Tamburlaine.
Go frowning forth ; but come thou smiling home,
As did sir Paris with the Grecian dame ;
Return with speed— time passeth swift away ;
Our life is frail, and we may die to<lay.

Tker. Before the moon renew her borrowed light.
Doubt not, my Lord and gracious Sovereign, 70

But Tamburlaine and that Tartarian rout,

1 Immediately..

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1 2 The First Part of [act i.

Shall either perish by our warlike hands.
Or plead for mercy at your Highness' feet

Myc, Go, stout Theridamas, thy words are swords,
And with thy looks thou conquerest all thy foes ;
I long to see thee back return from thence,
That I may view these milk-white steeds of mine
All loaden with the heads of killed men,
And from their knees e'en to their hoofs below
Besmeared with blood that makes a dainty show. 80

Ther, Then now, my Lord, I humbly take my leave.

Myc Theridamas, farewell 1 ten thousand times.

{Exit Theridamas.
Ah, Menaphon, why sta/st thou thus behind.
When other men press forward for renown ?
Go, Menaphon, go into Scythia ;
And foot by foot follow Theridamas.

Cos. Nay, pray you let him stay ; a greater [task] ^
Fits Menaphon than warring with a thief:
Create him Prorex * of all Africa,

That he may win the Babylonians' hearts 90

Which will revolt from Persian government.
Unless they have a wiser king than you.

Myc, " Unless they have a wiser king than you.'
These are his words ; Meander, set them down.

Cos. And add this to them — that all Asia
Laments to see the folly of their king.

Myc. Well, here I swear by this my royal seat, —

1 The modem editors insert the word " task."
' Viceroy. In Day's Parliament of Bees the master-bee is styled
•"Prorex."

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scBNB I.] Tamburlaine the Great 13

Cos, Yott may do well to kiss it then«

Myc Embossed with silk as best beseems my state.
To be revenged for these contemptuous words. 100

Oh, where is duty and allegiance now ?
Fled to the Caspian or the Ocean main ?
What shall I call thee ? brother? — no, a foe ;
Monster of nature ! — Shame unto thy stock
That dar'st presume thy sovereign for to mock !
Meander, come : I am abused, Meander.

\Allgo out but CosROE and Menaphon.

Men. How now, my Lord? What, mated ^ and
amazed
To hear the king thus threaten like himself!

Cos. Ah, Menaphon, I pass not ^ for his threats ;
The plot is laid by Persian noblemen no

And captains of the Median garrisons
To crown me emperor of Asia :
But this it is that doth excruciate
The very substance of my vex^d soul —
To see our neighboiu^ that were wont to quake
And tremble at the Persian monarch's name.
Now sit and laugh our regiment ^ to scorn ;
And that which might resolve ^ me into tears.
Men from the farthest equinoctial line

^ Confounded

s Care not. Cf. ^ Henry VI „ iv. a:— "As for these silken-coated
slaves, I pass not."
'Rule. Ct Edward IL.y.i.^

*' But what are kings when regiment is gone
But perfect shadows in a sunshine day. "
^ '* Resolve " and '* dissolve " are used indiffierenUy.

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1 4 The First Part of [act i.

Have swarmed in troops into the Eastern India, 120

Lading their ships ^ with gold and precious stones,
And made their spoils from all our provinces.

Men. This should entreat your highness to rejoice,.
Since Fortune gives you opportunity
To gain the title of a conqueror
By curing of this maimbd empery.
Afric and Europe bordering on your land,
And continent to your dominions.
How easily may you, with a mighty host,
Pass into Graecia, as did Cyrus once, 130

And cause them to withdraw their forces home,
Lest you subdue the pride of Christendom.

Cos, But, Menaphon, what means this trumpet's sound ?

Men, Behold, my lord, Ortygius and the rest
Bringing the crown to make you emperor !
Enter Ortygius and Cenkus,* with others^ bearing a
Crown,

Orty, Magnificent and mighty Prince Cosroe,
We, in the name of other Persian states'
And Commons of the mighty monarchy,
Presfent thee with the imperial diadem.

Cen, The warlike soldiers and the gentlemen, 140

That heretofore have filled Persepolis
With Afric captains taken in the field,
Whose ransom made them march in coats of gold.
With costly jewels hanging at their ears.
And shining stones upon their lofty crests,

1 8vo. ••shippe."— 4ta "ships."
s Old copies *' Conems." > /.«. nobles.

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SCENE I.] Tamburlaine the Great. 15

Now living idle in the wallM towns,

Wanting both pay and martial discipline,

Begin in troops to threaten civil war,

And openly exclaim against their king :

Therefore, to stop all sudden mutinies, *So

We will invest your highness emperor,

Whereat the soldiers will conceive more joy,

Than did the Macedonians at the spoil

Of great Darius and his wealthy host*

Cos. Well, since I see the state of Persia droop
And languish in my brother's government,
I willingly receive the imperial crown,
And vow to wear it for my country's good,
In spite of them shall malice^ my estate.

Orty^ And in assurance of desired success, ^^

We here do crown thee monarch of the East,
Emperor of Asia and of Persia \ -
Great Lord of Media and Armenia ;
Duke of Africa and Albania,
Mesopotamia and of Parthia,
East India and the late discovered isles ;
Chief lord of all the wide, vast Euxine Sea, •

And of the ever-raging Caspian Lake.

Ail* Long live Cosroe, mighty emperor !

Cos. And Jove may never let me longer live 170

Than I may seek to gratify your love.
And cause the soldiers that thus honour me

1 Nares quotes several passages (fiom Spenser, Jonson, &c) where
" malice " is used as a verb,
s So 4to.— 8vo. gives the line to Ortygius.

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1 6 The First Part of [act i.

To triumph over many provinces !
By whose desire of discipline in arms
I doubt not shortly but to reign sole king,
And with the army of Theridamas,
(Whither we presently will fly, my lords)
To rest secure against my brother's force.

Oriy, We knew, my lord, before we brought the crown.
Intending your investion ^ so near i8o

The residence of your despised brother.
The lords would not be too exasperate
To injury ^ or suppress your worthy title ;
Or, if they would, there are in readiness
Ten thousand horse to cany you from hence.
In spite of all suspected enemies.

Cos, I know it well, my lord, and thank you alL

Orty. Sound up the trumpets thea \Trumpeis sound.

All^ God save the king !

\ExeufU omnes.
SCENE 11.

Enter Tamburlaine hading ZsNOCRATSy Techelles,
UsuMCASANE, Agydas, Magnetes, Lotds^ and So/-
dierSy loadcn with treasure.

Tamb. Come, lady, let not this appal your thoughts ;
The jewels and the treasure we have ta*en

1 Marlowe's use of this word supports Farmer's conection, " infes-
tion " for " infection," in Richard //., ii. x.

s The verb "injury" is not uncommon. To the instances given by
Dyoe add Dr, Dodypol, v. a : — "Ashamed that you should injury your
estate." * So 4ta~-8To. gives the words to Ortygius.

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scKNE iL] Tamburlaine the Great 1 7

Shall be reserved, and you in better state,
Than if you were arrived in Syria,
Even in the circle of your father's arms,
The mighty soldan of ^gyptia.

Zeno. Ah, shepherd ! pity my distressed plight,
(I^ as thou seem'st, thou art so mean a man,)
And seek not to enrich thy followers
By lawless rapine from a silly maid, 10

Who travelling with these Median lords
To Memphis, hrom my uncle's country of Media,i
Where all my youth I have been governed^
Have past the army of the mighty Turk,
Bearing his privy signet and his hand
To safe conduct us thorough Africa*

Mag. And since we have arrived in Scythia,
Besides rich presents from the puissant Cham,
We have his highness' letters to command
Aid and assistance, if we stand in need. 20

Tamh, But now you see these letters and commands
Are countermanded by a greater man ;
And through my provinces you must expect
Letters of conduct from my mightiness,
If you intend to keep your treasure safe.
But, since I love to live at liberty,
As easily may you get the soldan's crown
As any prizes out of my precinct ;
For they are friends that help to wean my state

^ For the sake of the metre Cunningham reads :— " With these my
uncle's lords To Memphis from his coontiy of Media."

VOL. L fi

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1 8 The First Part of [act l

'Till men and kingdoms help to strengthen it, 30

And must maintain my life exempt from servitude. —
But, tell me, madam, is your grace betrothed ?
Zino, I am — my lord — for so you do import

Tamb. I am a lord, for so my deeds shall prove :
And yet a shepherd by my parentage.
But, lady, this fair face and heavenly hue
Must grace his bed that conquers Asia,
And means to be a terror to the world,
Measuring the limits of his empery
By east and west, as Phcebus doth his course. 40

Lie here ye weeds that I disdain to wear !
This complete armour and this curtle axe
Are adjuncts more beseeming Tamburlaine.
And, madam, whatsoever you esteem
Of this success and loss unvalued,^
Both may invest you empress of the East ;
And these that seem but silly country swains
May have the leading of so great an host.
As with their weight shall make the mountains quake.
Even as when windy exhalations 50

Fighting for passage, tilt within the earth.

Tuh, As princely lions, when they rouse themselves.
Stretching their paws, and threatening herds of beasts,
So in his armour looketh Tamburlaine.
Methinks I see kings kneeling at his feet.
And he with frowning brows and fiery looks,
Spuming their crowns from off theu- captive heads.

1 Not to be valued ; as ia Richard iii,^ I 4 :— " Inestimable stones,
unvalutd jewels."

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scBNEii.] Tamburlaine the Great, 19

Usum. And making thee and me, TecheUes»
kings,
That even to death will follow Tamburlaine.

Tamb. Nobly resolved, sweet friends and fol-
lowers ! 60
These Lords, perhiq>s do scorn our estimates,
And think we prattle with distempered spirits ;
But since they measure our deserts so mean,
That in conceit bear empires on our spears,
Affecting thoughts coequal with the clouds,
They shall be kept our forcM followers.
Till with their eyes they view us emperors.

Zeno. The Gods, defenders of the innocent,
Will never prosper your intended drifts.
That thus oppress poor friendless passengers. 70

Therefore at least admit us liberty,
Even as thou hopest to be eternised.
By living Asia's mighty emperor.

Agyd, I hope our ladies' treasures and our
own.
May serve for ransom to our liberties :
Return our mules and empty camels back,
That we may travel into Syria,
Where her betrothed lord Alcidamas,
Expects th' arrival of her highness' person.

Mag. And wheresoever we repose ourselves, 80

We will report but well of Tamburlaine.

Tamb. Disdains Zenocrate to live with me ?
Or you, my lords, to be my followers ?
Think you I weigh this treasure more than you ?

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20 The First Part of [act i.

Not all the gold in India's wealthy arms

Shall buy the meanest soldier in my train.

Zenocrate, lovelier than the love of Jove,

Brighter than is the silver Rhodope,^

Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills, —

Thy person is more worth to Tamburlaine, 90

Than the possession of the Persian crown.

Which gracious stars have promised at my birth.

A hundred Tartars shall attend on thee,

Mounted on steeds swifter than Pegasus ;

Thy garments shall be made of Median silk,'

Enchased with precious jewels of mine own.

More rich and valurous® than Zenocrate's.

With milk-white harts upon an ivory sled.

Thou shalt be drawn amidst the frozen pools,^

And scale the icy mountains' lofty tops, 100

Which with thy beauty will be soon resolved.

My martial prizes with five hundred men.

Won on the fifly-headed Volga's waves.

Shall we all * offer to Zenocrate, —

And then myself to fair Zenocrate.

Tech, What now ! — ^in love ?

Tamb. Techelles, women must be flatterM :
But this is she with whom I am in ^ love.

1 Old copies " Rhodolfe."

> Cf. xif^TamingofaSkrew:^

" Thoa shalt have garments wroaght of Median silk
Enchas'd with precious jewels brought from far.'
s i,e, valuable.

• 8vo. •• Pooles.*— 4to. "poles."

• 8vo. omits ' ' all.' —410. reads " we all shall.*

• 8vo. "it."— 4to. "in."

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scBNBiL] Tamburlaine the Great. 21

Enter a Soldier.

Sold, News ! news !

Tamb. How now — what's the matter ? no

Soid. A thousand Persian horsemen are at hand,
Sent from the king to overcome us alL

Tamb. How now, my lords of £g3rpt, and Zenocrate 1
How ! — must your jewels be restored again.
And I, that triumphed so, be overcome ?
How say you, lordings, — ^is not this your hope ?

Agyd, We hope yourself will willingly restore them.

Tamb. Such hope, such fortune, have the thousand
horse.
Soft ye, my lords, and sweet Zenocrate !
You must be forced from me ere you go. 120

A thousand horsemen !— We five hundred foot ! —
An odds too great for us to stand against.
But are they rich ? — ^and is their armour good ?

Sold Their plumbd helms are wrought with beaten
gold,
Their swords enamelled, and about their necks
Hangs ^ massy chains of gold, down to the waist.
In every part exceeding brave ^ and rich.

Tamb. Then shall we fight courageously with them ?
Or look you I should play the orator ?

1 So the Svo. Modem editors (including Dyce) read ** hang." It is
very common to find in old writers a plural subject joined to a singular
fterb. See Abbott's Shakespearean Grammar (§ 353). I have retained
the seeming anomaly wherever it occurs in the ediiio princes.

> GaOy dressed. The use of the word " bmye * in this sense is very

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22 The First Part of [act i.

Tech, No : cowards and faint-hearted runaways 130
Look for orations when the foe is near :
Our swords shall play the orator for us.

Usunu Come ! let us meet them at the mountain top,^
And with a sudden and a hot alarum,
Drive all their horses headlong down the hill.

Tech, Come, let us march !

Tamb, Stay ! ask a parle first.

The Soldiers enter.
Open the mails,' yet guard the treasure sure ;
Lay out our golden wedges to the view,
That their reflections may amaze the Persians ;
And look we friendly on them when they come ; 140
But if they offer word or violence,
We'll fight five hundred men at arms to one.
Before we part with our possession.
And 'gainst the general we will lift our swords.
And either lanch ' his greedy thirsting throat.
Or take him prisoner, and his chain shall serve
For manacles, till he be ransomed home.

Tech. I hear them come ; shall we encounter them ?

Tamb. Keep all your standings and not stir a foot.
Myself will bide the danger of the brunt 150

Enter Thbridamas and others.
Ther. Where is the Scythian Tamburlaine?

1 So4to. — 8vo. "mountain foot."

s Bags or trunks (Fr. malU).

s So 8va Marlowe uses " lanoe " and " lanch *' indiiierenUy.

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sciNE II.] Tamburlaine tJte Great 23

Tamb. Who seek'st thou, Persian ? — I am Tamburlaine.

Ther, Tamburlaine \ —
A Scythian shepherd so embellished
With nature's pride and richest furniture I
His looks do menace Heaven and dare the gods :
His fiery eyes are fixed upon the earth,
As if he now devised some stratagem,
Or meant to pierce Avemus' darksome vauts ^
To pull the triple-headed dog from helL 160

Tamb, Noble and mild this Persian seems to be,
If outward habit judge the inward man.

Tech. His deep affections make him passionate.

Tamh. With what a majesty he rears his looks !
In thee, thou valiant man of Persia,
I see the folly of thy emperor.
Art thou but captain of a thousand horse,
That by charters graven in thy brows,
And by thy martial face and stout aspect,
Deserv'st to have the leading of a host ! 170

Forsake thy king, and do but join with me,
And we will triumph over all the world ;
I hold the fates bound fast in iron chains.
And with my hand turn fortune's wheel about :
And sooner shall the sun fall from his sphere,
Than Tamburlaine be slain or overcome.
Draw forth thy sword, thou mighty man at arms,
Intending but to raze my charmbd skin,
And Jove himself will stretch his hand from Heaven

1 So Sra In the Second Part, ii. 4, we find ''vaults.**

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24 The First Part of (act i.

To ward the blow and shield me safe from harm. i8o

See how he rains down heaps of gold in showers,

As if he meant to give my soldiers pay I

And as a sure and grounded argument,

That I shall be the monarch of the East,

He sends this soldan's daughter rich and brave,

To be my queen and portly emperess.

If thou wilt stay with me, renowmbd ^ man,

And lead thy thousand horse with my condiict,

Besides thy share of this Egyptian prize,

Those thousand horse shall sweat with martial spoil 190

Of conquered kingdoms and of cities sacked ;

Both we will walk upon the lofty cliffs,

And Christian merchants that with Russian stems ^

Plough up huge furrows in the Caspian sea,

Shall vail ' to us, as lords of all the lake.

Both we will reign as consuls of the earth,

And mighty kings shall be our senators.

Jove sometimes maskM in a shepherd's weed.

And by those steps that he hath scaled the heavens

May we become immortal like the gods. 200

Join with me now in this my mean estate,

(I call it mean because being yet obscure.

The nations far removed admire me not,)

^ I haye retained the recognised fonn **renowroM'* wherever it
occurs in the 8vo.

* Cf. Z594 Taming of a Shrew: —

" Christian merchants that with Russian stems
Plough up huge furrows in the Tyrrhene main."
Merchants= merchantmen : stems = prows.

* Lower their flags.

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sczNx II.] Tamburlaine the Great. 25

And when my name and honour shall be spread
As far as Boreas claps his brazen wings,^
Or fair Bootes ' sends his cheerful light.
Then shalt thou be competitor^ with me,
And sit with Tamburlaine in all his majesty.

Tker. Not Hermes, prolocutor to the gods,
Could use persuasions more pathetical. 210

Tamh. Nor are Apollo's oracles more true,
Than thou shalt find my vaunts substantial.

Tuh. We are his friends, and if the Persian king
Should offer present dukedoms to our state,
We think it loss to make exchange for that
We are assured of by our friend's success.

Usum, And kingdoms at the least we all expect.
Besides the honour in assured conquests.
When kings shall crouch unto our conquering swords
And hosts of soldiers stand amazed at us ; 220

When with their fearful tongues they shall confess,
These are the men that all the world admires.

Ther. What strong enchantments tice my yielding soul !
These are resolvM, noble Scythians :^
But shall I prove a traitor to my king ?

Tamb. No, but the trusty friend of Tamburlaine.

1 Perhaps Marlowe remembered Ovid's *' Et quamvis Boreas jac-
talis insonet alis."~7>if/., lit zo, 1. 45.
« Sva •• BotAcs."— 4ta " Boetes."

s t.e. sharer ; as in Two G€Htkmm. of Verona, ii. 6 :— " Myself in
ooimsel his competitor.''
« Old copies " are these." The modem editors read--
*' What strong enchantments tice my yielding soul
To these resolvM noble Scythians ? "

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26 The First Part of [act i.

Ther, Won with thy words, and conquered with thy
looks,
I yield myself, my men, and horse to thee,
To be partaker of thy good or ill,
As long as life maintains Theridamas. 230

Tamb. Theridamas, my friend, take here my hand,
Which is as much as if I swore by Heaven,
And call'd the gods to witness of my vow.
Thus shall my heart be still combined with thine
Until our bodies turn to elements.
And both our souls aspire celestial thrones.
Techelles and Casane, welcome him !

Tech, Welcome, renowmM Persian, to us all I

Vsum^ Long may Theridamas remain with us !

Tamb, These are my friends, in whom I more
rejoice 240

Than doth the king of Persia in his crown.
And by the love of Pylades and Orestes,
Whose statues * we adore in Scythia,
Thyself and them shall never part from me
Before I crown you kings in Asia.
Make much of them, gentle Theridamas,
And they wiU never leave thee till the death.

1 So 4to.— 8vo. *' statutes." "As the Scythians worshipped Pylades
and Orestes in temples/' says the editor of z8a6. " we have adopted the
reading of the 4to, as being most probably the correct one.*' What
Ovid says is—

" Minis amor jnvenum, quamvis abiere tot anni.
In Scythia magnum nunc quoque nomen habet"

— fijr PimiOy ilL s, 95, 6.

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SCENE IT.] Tamburlaine the Great. 27

Ther. Nor thee nor them, thrice noble Tamburlaine,
Shall want my heart to be with gladness pierced,
To do you honour and security. 250

Tomb. A thousand thanks, worthy Theridamas.
And now fair madam, and my noble lords,
If you will willingly remain with me
You shall have honours as your merits be ;
Or else you shall be forced with slavery.

Agyd. We yield unto thee, happy Tamburlaine.

Tamb, For you then, madam, I am out of doubt

Zaio. I must be pleased perforce. Wretched Zeno-
crate ! \Exeunt

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( 28 )

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE I.

Enttr CosROE, Menaphon, Ortygius, Ceneus, with
othtr Soldiers.

Cos. Thus far are we towards Theridamas,
And valiant Tamburlaine, the man of fame,
The man that in the forehead of his fortune
Bears figures of renown and miracle.
But tell me, that hast seen him, Menaphon,
What stature wields he, and what personage ?

Men, Of stature tall, and straightly fashioned,
Like his desire lift upward and divine,
So large of limbs, his joints so strongly knit,
Such breadth of shoulders as might mainly bear lo

Old Atlas* burthen ; — 'twixt his manly pitch,^
A pearl, more worth than all the world, is placed,
Wherein by curious sovereignty of art
Are fixed his piercing instruments of sight,
Whose fiery circles bear encompassM

1 Originally the height to which a falcon soared ; hence for height in
generaL Here it means the shoulders.

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scxNK I. Tamburlaine the Great. 29

A heaven of heavenly bodies in their spheres,

That guides his steps and actions to the throne,

Where honour sits invested royally :

Pale of complexion, wrought in him with passion,

Thirsting with sovereignty and^ love of arms ; 20

His lofty brows in folds do figure death.

And in their smoothness amity and life ;

About them hangs a knot of amber hair,

WrappM in curls, as fierce Achilles' was,

On which the breath of Heaven delights to play.

Making it dance with wanton majesty. —

His arms and fingers, long, and sinewy,^

Betokening valour and excess of strength ; —

In every part proportioned like the man

Should make the world subdued to Tamburlaine. 30
Cos, Well hast thou pourtrayed in thy terms of life

The face and personage of a wondrous man ;

Nature' doth strive with Fortune and his stars

To make him famous in accomplished worth ;

And well his merits show him to be made

His fortune's master and the king of men.

That could persuade at such a sudden pinch,

With reasons of his valour and his life,

A thousand sworn and overmatching foes.

» So 41a— 8vo. " with."

* This is Dyce's emendation for the 8vo/s "snowy." The 4to.
reads :— " His armes long, his fingers snowy-white."

* Dyoe suggests that Shakespeare had this line in his mind when he
wrote.—" Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee gnaX."^ King John,
iii z. Bat the form of expression is common. ,

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30 The First Part of [act h.

Then, when our powers in points of swords are joined 40

And closed in compass of the killing bullet,

Though strait the passage and the port^ be made

That leads to palace of my brother's life,

Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not

And when the princely Persian diadem

Shall overweigh his weary witless head.

And fall like mellowed fruit with shakes of death,

In fair Persia, noble Tamburlaine

Shall be my regent and remain as king.

Orty. In happy hour we have set the crown 50

Upon your kingly head that seeks our honour,
In joining with the man ordained by Heaven,
To further every action to the best

Cen, He that with shepherds and a little spoil
Durst in disdain of wrong and tyranny.
Defend his freedom 'gainst a monarchy.
What will he do supported by a king.
Leading a troop of gentlemen and lords,
And stuffed with treasure for his highest thoughts 1

Cos. And such shall wait on worthy Tamburlaine. 60
Our army will be forty thousand strong.
When Tamburlaine and brave Theridamas
Have met us by the river Araris ;
And all conjoined to meet the witless king,
That now is marching near to Parthia,
And with unwilling soldiers faintly armed,
To seek revenge on me and Tamburlaine,

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scBNK u.] Tamburlaine the Great 3 1

To whom, sweet Menaphon, direct me straight

Mm. I will, my lord. \Exeunt

SCENE 11.

Enter Mycetes, Meander, with other Lords and
Soldiers.

Myc. Come, my Meander, let us to this gear.^
I tell you true, my heart is swoln with wrath
On this same thievish villain, Tambiu'laine,
And, on that false Cosroe, my traitorous brother.
Would it not grieve a king to be so abused
And have a thousand horsemen ta'en away?
And, which is worse, to have his diadem
Sought for by such scald ^ knaves as love him not ?
I think it would \ well then, by Heavens I swear,
Aurora shall not peep out of her doors, 10

But I will have Cosroe by the head,
And kill proud Tamburlaine with point of sword.
Tell you the rest. Meander : I have said.

Meand. Then having past Armenian deserts now,
And pitched our tents under the Georgian hills,
Whose tops are covered with Tartarian thieves,
That lie in ambush, waiting for a prey,

1 Btisiness. Cf. Edward I!,, v. 5 :— " So now must I aboat this^tfr. '*
3 Henry Vi„ i. 4 :— " Well said, my masters, and welcome all to this
lear; the sooner the better."
> Scorvy, low, paltry. Cf. Antony and CUopaira^ v. a :—

** Saucy lictors
Will catch at us like strumpets, and uald rhymes
BaUad us out of tune."

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32 The First Part of [act n.

What should we do but bid them battle straight,

And rid the world of those detested troops?

Lest, if we let them linger here awhile, 20

They gather strength by power of fresh supplies.

This country swarms with vile outrageous men

That live by rapine and by lawless spoil,

Fit soldiers for the wicked Tamburlaine ;

And he that could with gifts and promises

Inveigle him that led a thousand horse,

And make him false his faith unto his king.

Will quickly win such as be like himself.

Therefore cheer up your minds ; prepare to fight ;

He that can take or slaughter Tamburlaine 30

Shall rule the province of Albania :

Who brings that traitor's head, Theridamas,

Shall have a government in Media,

Beside the spoil of him and all his train :

But if Cosroe, (as our spials^ say,

And as we know) remains with Tamburlaine,

His Highness' pleasure is that he should live,

And be reclaimed with princely lenity.

A Spy. A hundred horsemen of my company
Scouting abroad upon these champion' plains 40

Have viewed the army of the Scythians,
Which make report it far exceeds the king's.

Meand. Suppose they be in number infinite,

1 Espials, spies. Cf. i Henry VI, i. 4 :— «• The.priace's spials have
informed me."
s The old form of "champaiQ."

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SCENE II.] Tamburlaine the Great 33

Yet being void of martial discipline,

All running headlong after greedy^ spoils.

And more regarding gain than victory,

Like to the cruel brothers of the earth,

Sprong2 of the teeth of dragons venomous,

Their careless swords shall lanch their fellows' throats,

And make us triumph in their overthrow. 50

Myc, Was there such brethren, sweet Meander, say.
That sprong of teeth of dragons venomous ?

Meand, So poets say, my lord.

Myc And 'tis a pretty toy to be a poet.
Well, well, Meander, thou art deeply read.
And having thee, I have a jewel sure.
Go on, my Lord, and give your charge, I say j
Thy wit will make us conquerors to-day.

Meand, Then, noble soldiers, to entrap these thieves.
That live confounded in disordered troops, 60

If wealth or riches may prevail with them.
We have our camels laden all with gold,
Which you that be but common soldiers
Shall fling in every corner of the field ;
And while the base-bom Tartars take it up,
You, fighting more for honour than for gold,
Shall massacre those greedy-minded slaves ;
And when their scattered army is subdued.
And you march on their slaughtered carcases.
Share equally the gold that bought their lives, 70

1 Dyce printed "greedy after spoils."

* So the o]d copies : in the Second Part we have the spelling " sprung. "
VOL. L C

V

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34 ^^ First Part of [act n.

And live like gentlemen in Persia.

Strike up the drum ! and march courageously !

Fortune herself doth sit upon our crests.

Myc, He tells you true, my masters : so he does.
Drums, why sound ye not, when Meander speaks ?

\Exeunt^ drums sounding,

SCENE IIL

Enter Cosroe, Tamburlaine, Theridamas, Techelles,
UsuMCASANE, and Ortygius, tvith others.

Cos. Now, worthy Tamburlaine, have I reposed
In thy approved fortunes all my hope.
What think'st thou, man, shall come of our attempts ?
For even as from assured oracle,
I take thy doom for satisfaction.

Tamb, And so mistake you not a whit, my Lord ;
For fates and oraclfes [of] Heaven have sworn
To royalise the deeds of Tamburlaine,
And make them blest that share in his attempts.
And doubt you not but, if you favour me, lo

And let my fortunes and my valour sway
To some^ direction in your martial deeds.
The world will strive with hosts of men at arms.
To swarm unto the ensign I support :
The host of Xerxes, which by fame is said
To have drank the mighty Parthian Araris,
Was but a handful to that we will have.

* So 4to.— 8vo. " scorne."

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 35

Our quivering lances, shaking in the air,
And bullets, like Jove's dreadful thunderbolts,
ElnroUed in flames and fiery smouldering mists, 20

Shall threat the gods more than Cyclopian wars :
And with our sun-bright armour as we march,
Well chase the stars from heaven and dim their eyes
That stand and muse at our admired arms.

Ther. You hear, my Lord, what working words he hath \
But when you see his actions stop^ his speech,
Your speech will stay or so extol his worth
As I shall be commended and excused
For turning my poor charge to his direction.
And these his two renowm^d friends, my lord, 30

Would make one thirst ^ and strive to be retained
In such a great degree of amity.

Tech, With duty and ^ with amity we yield
Our utmost service to the fair Cosroe.

Cos. Which I esteem as portion of my crown.
Usumcasane and Techelles both.
When she that rules in Rhamnus' ^ golden gates,
And makes a passage for all prosperous arms,
Shall make me solely emperor of Asia,
Then shall your meeds ^ and valours be advanced 40
To rooms of honour and nobility.

1 D7CC reads " top," which gives excellent sense.

» 8w. '* thinst."— 4to. "thrist.*' » So 4to.— 8vo. "not."

4 Brougbton quotes from Locrine : —

'* She that rules fair Rhamnus' golden gates
Grant us the honour of the victory."
The old copies read * * Rhamnis. '* The allusion is of course to Nemesis,
who had a temple at Rhamnus in Attica.
»So8vo.— 4to. "deeds."

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36 The First Part of [act n.

Tatnh. Then haste, Cosroe, to be king alone,
That I with these, my friends, and all my men
May triumph in our long-expected fate. —
The king, your brother, is now hard at hand ;
Meet with the fool, and rid your royal shoulders
Of such a burthen as outweighs the sands
And all the craggy rocks of Caspia.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes, My lord, we have discovered the enemy
Ready to charge you with a mighty army. 50

Cos, Come, Tamburlaine! now whet thy wingbd
sword,
And lift thy lofty arm into the clouds,
That it may reach the king of Persia's crown,
And set it safe on my victorious head.

Tamb, See where it is, the keenest curtle axe
That e'er made passage thorough Persian arms.
These are the wings shall make it fly as swift
As doth the lightning or the breath of Heaven,
And kill as sure as it swiftly flies.

Cos, Thy words assiire me of kind success ; 60

Go, valiant soldier, go before and charge
The fainting army of that foolish king.

Tamb, Usumcasane and Techelles, come !
We are enow to scare the enemy.
And more than needs to make an emperor.

\Th^ go out to the battle.

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sciNEiv.] Tamburlaine the Great, 37

SCENE IV.

Mycetes comes out alone with his Crown in his hand^
offering to hide it.

Myc Accursed be he that first invented war !
They knew not, ah they knew not, simple men,
How those were hit by pelting cannon shot.
Stand staggering like a quivering aspen leaf
Fearing the force of Boreas' boisterous blasts.
In what a lamentable case were I
If Nature had not given me wisdom's lore,
For kings are clouts ^ that every man shoots at,
Our crown the pin that thousands seek to cleave ;
Therefore in policy I think it good 10

To hide it close ; a goodly stratagem,
And far from any man that is a fool :
So shall I not be known; or if I be.
They cannot take away my crown from me.
Here will I hide it in this simple hole.

Enter Tamburlaine.

Tamb, What, fearful coward, straggling from the
camp,
When kings themselves are present in the field ?
Myc Thouliest
Tamb. Base villain I darest thou give * the lie ?

1 Tbe "cloat" was the mark at which the archers aimed, and the
" pin " was tbe naU which fastened it.
s So 8vo. Dyce follows the reading of the 4ta " give me the lie."

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38 The First Part of [act h.

Myc. Away ; I am the king ; go ; touch me not
Thou break'st the law of arms, unless thou kneel 20
And cry me "mercy, noble king."

Tamb, Are you the witty king of Persia ?

Myc, Aye, marry am I : have you any suit to me ?

Tamb. I would entreat you speak but three wise
words.

Myc, So I can when I see my time.

Tamb, Is this your crown ?

Myc, Aye, didst thou ever see a fairer ?

Tatnb. You will not sell it, will you ?

Myc, Such another word and I will have thee exe-
cuted. Come, give it me ! 30

Tamb, No ; I took it prisoner.

Myc, You lie ; I gave it you.

Tamb, Then 'tis mine.

Myc. No ; I mean I let you keep it

Tamb. Well ; I mean you shall have it again.
Here ; take it for a while : I lend it thee,
Till I may see thee hemmed with armM men ;
Then shalt thou see me pull it from thy head :
Thou art no match for mighty Tamburlaine.

{Exit Tamburlaine.

Myc, O gods! Is this Tamburlaine the thief? 40

I marvel much he stole it not away.

\Sound trumpets to the battle^ and Ju runs in.

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SCENE v.] Tamburlaine the Great. 39

SCENE V.

-ffif/crCosROE, Tamburlaine, Theridamas, Menaphon,
Meander, Ortygius, Techelles, Usumcasane,
with others.

Tamb. Hold thee, Cosroe ! wear two imperial crowns ;
Think thee invested now as royally,
Even by the mighty hand of Tamburlaine,
As if as many kings as could encompass thee
With greatest pomp, had crowned thee emperor.

Cos. So do I, thrice renowm^d man at arms,
And none shall keep the crown but Tamburlaine.
Thee do I make my regent of Persia,
And general lieutenant of my armies.
Meander, you, that were our brother's guide, 10

And chiefest ^ counsellor in all his acts,
Since he is ]delded to the stroke of war.
On your submission we with thanks excuse,
And give you equal place in our affairs.

Meand, Most happiest emperor, in humblest terms,
I vow my service to your majesty,
With utmost virtue of my faith and duty.

Cos. Thanks, good Meander : then Cosroe reign.
And govern Persia in her former pomp !
Now send embassage to thy neighbour kings, 20

And let them know the Persian king is changed,

»So4to.-8?o. "cUefe."

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40 TJie First Part of [act n.

From one that knew not what a king should do,

To one that can command what 'longs thereto.

And now we will to fair Persepolis,

With twenty thousand expert soldiers,

The lords and captains of my brother's camp

With little slaughter take Meander's course,

And gladly yield them to my gracious rule.

Ortygius and Menaphon, my trusty friends,

Now will I gratify your former good, 30

And grace your calling with a greater sway.

Orty. And as we ever aimed ^ at your behoof,
And sought your state all honour it * deserved.
So will we with our powers and our ' lives
Endeavour to preserve and prosper it.

Cos. I will not thank thee, sweet Ortygius ;
Better replies shall prove my purposes.
And now, Lord Tamburlaine, my brother's camp
I leave to thee and to Theridamas,
To follow me to fair Persepolis. 40

Then will I march to all those Indian mines,
My witless brother to the Christians lost.
And ransom them with fame and usury.
And till thou overtake me, Tamburlaine,
(Staying to order all the scattered troops,)
Farewell, lord regent and his happy friends !
I long to sit upon my brother's throne.

1 So4to.— 8vo. "and."

« So4to.— 8vo. "is."

* So 4to.— Omitted in 8va

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SCENE v.] Tantburlaine the Great. 41

Meand, Your majesty shall shortly have your wish.
And ride in triumph through Persepolis.

\Allgo out hut Tam&, Tech., Ther., and Usum.

Tamb. " And ride in triumph through Persepolis ! " 50
Is it not brave to be a kin^ Techelles?
Usumcasane and TheridamaSi
Is it not passing brave to be a king,
" And ride in triumph through Persepolis ? "

Tech, O, my lord, 'tis sweet and full of pomp.

Vsum. To be a king is half to be a god.

Hier, A god is not so glorious as a king.
I think the pleasure they enjoy in heaven,
Cannot compare with kingly joys on earth. —
To wear a crown enchased with pearl and gold, 60

Whose virtues carry with it life and death ; ^
To ask and have, command and be obeyed ;
When looks breed love, with looks to gain the prize,
Such power attractive shines in princes' eyes !

Tamb. Why say, Theridamas, wilt thou be a king ?

Ther. Nay, though I praise it, I can live without it

Ta$itb. What say my other friends? Will you be
kings ?

Tcdi. I, if I could, with all my heart, my lord.

Tamb. Why, that's well said, Techelles ; so would I,
And so would you, my masters, would you not? 70

^ Brougfatoii compares 3 Henry K/., i 2 : —
" Father, do but Uimk
How sweet a thing it is to wear a ciown,
Within whose circuit is Elizium
And aU that poeu feign of bliss and joy."

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42 The First Part of [act il

Usum, What then, my lord ?

Tamb, Why then, Casane,^ shall we wish for aught
The world affords in greatest novelty,
And rest attemptless, faint, and destitute ?
Methinks we should not : I am strongly moved.
That if I should desire the Persian crown,
I could attain it with a wondrous ease.
And would not all our soldiers soon consent.
If we should aim at such a dignity ?

Ther» I know they would with our persuasions. 80

Tatnb, Why then, Theridamas, I'll first assay
To get the Persian kingdom to myself;
Then thou for Parthia ; they for Scythia and Media ;
And, if I prosper, all shall be as sure
As if the Turk, the Pope, Afric, and Greece,
Came creeping to us with their crowns apiece.*

Tech. Then shall we send to this triumphing king.
And bid 'him battle for his novel crown?

Usum, Nay, quickly then, before his room be hot.

Tamb. 'Twill prove a pretty jest, in faith, my friends. 90

Ther, A jest to charge on twenty thousand men !
I judge the purchase ^ more important far.

Tamb. Judge by thyself, Theridamas, not me ;
For presently Techelles here shall haste
To bid him battle ere he pass too far,
And lose more labour than the gain will quiet

1 Old copies read '• Casanes."

• So4to.— 8vo. "apace"

* •• Purchase*' is often found as a cant word for " thieving, fildiin^;.'*
Here it seems to mean an "expedition in search of plunder."

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SCENE VI.] Tamburlaine the Great. 43

Then shalt thou see this Scythian Tamburlaine,
Make but a jest to win the Persian crown.
Techelles, take a thousand horse with thee^
And bid him turn him ^ back to war with us, 100

That only made him king to make us sport.
We will not steal upon him cowardly,
But give him warning and more warriors.
Haste, thee, Techelles, we will follow thee
What saith Theridamas ?
Ther. Go on for me \^Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Enter CosROE, Meander, Ortygius, Menaphon, with

other Soldiers,

Cos, What means this devilish shepherd to aspire
With such a giantly presumption
To cast up hills against the face of heaven,
And dare the force of angry Jupiter ?
But as he thrust them underneath the hills,
And pressed out fire from their burning jaws,
So will I send this monstrous slave to hell,
Where flames shall ever feed upon his soul.
MeofuL Some powers divine, or else infernal, mixed

Their angry seeds at his conception ; 10

For he was never sprong of human race.

Since with the spirit of his fearful pride.

He dare so doubtlessly resolve of rule.

And by profession be ambitious.

1 Old copies "bis.'*

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44 The First Part of [act n.

Oriy. What god, or fiend, or spirit of the earth.
Or monster turnM to a manly shape,
Or of what mould or mettle he be made,
What star or state soever govern him.
Let us put on our meet encountering minds ;
And in detesting such a devilish chief^ 20

In love of honour and defence of right.
Be armed against the hate of such a foe,
Whether from earth, or hell,^ or heaven, he grow.

Cos. Nobly resolved, my good Ortygius ;
And since we all have sucked one wholesome air.
And with the same proportion of elements
Resolve, I hope we are resembled
Vowing our loves to equal death and life.
Let's cheer our soldiers to encounter him.
That grievous image of ingratitude, 30

That fiery thirster after sovereignty,
And burn him in the fury of that flame.
That none can quench but blood and empery.
Resolve, my lords and loving soldiers, now
To save your king and country from decay.
Then strike up, drum ; and all the stars that make
The loathsome circle of my dated life.
Direct my weapon to his barbarous heart.
That thus opposeth him against the gods.
And scorns the powers that govern Persia ! 40

\Exeunt ; martial music.

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SCENE VII.] Tamburlaine the Great 45

SCENE VII.

Alarms, — A battle; enter Cosroe, wounded^ Therida-
MAS, Tamburlaine, Techelles, Usumcasane, with
others,

Cos. Barbarous and bloody Tamburlaine,
Thus to deprive me of my crown and life !
Treacherous and false Theridamas,
Even at the morning of my happy state,
Scarce being seated in my royal throne,
To work my downfall and untimely end !
An uncouth pain torments my grieved soul,
And death arrests the organ of my voice,
Who, entering at the breach thy sword hath made,
Sacks every vein and artier ^ of my heart — lo

Bloody and insatiate Tamburlaine !

Tomb. The thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown
That caused the eldest son of heavenly Ops,
To thrust his doting father from his chair.
And place himself in the empyreal heaven.
Moved me to manage arms against thy state.
What better precedent than mighty Jove ?
Nature that framed us of four elements,
Warring within our breasts for regiment,
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds : 20

Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world.

1 Dyce quotes aeveral instances of this form of the word "artery.'

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46 The First Part of [act n.

And measure every wandering planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Wills us to wear ourselves, and never rest.
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,
That perfect bliss and sole felicity.
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.

Ther. And that made me to join with Tamburlaine : 30
For he is gross and like the massy earth,
That moves not upwards, nor by princely deeds
Doth mean to soar above the highest sort.

Tech, And that made us the friends of Tamburlaine,
To lift our swords against the Persian king.

Usum, For as when Jove did thrust old Saturn down,
Neptune and Dis gained each of them a crown,
So do we hope to reign in Asia,
If Tamburlaine be placed in Persia.

Cos. The strangest men that ever nature made ! 40
I know not how to take their tyrannies.
My bloodless body waxeth chill and cold.
And with my blood my life slides through my wound ;
My soul begins to take her flight to hell.
And summons all my senses to depart. —
The heat and moisture, which did feed each other.
For want of nourishment to feed them both,
Is dry and cold ; and now doth ghastly death.
With greedy talents ^ gripe my bleeding heart,

1 *• Talon " was not unfrequently spelt " talent." Cf. Lofoe's Labour's
Lost, iv. a :— *• If a talent be a claw." — Pistol's " Let vultures gripe thy
guts/' may be, as Stevens suggested, a parody of this passage.

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SCENE VII.] Tamburlaine the Great. 47

And like a harpy tires ^ on my life. 50

Theridamas and Tamburlaine, I die :

And fearful vengeance light upon you both !

[CosROE dies, — Tamburlaine takes the crown and
puts it on.

Tamb, Not all the curses which the ^ furies breathe,
Shall make me leave so rich a prize as this.
Theridamas, Techelles, and the rest,
Tllio think you now is king of Persia ?

All. Tamburlaine! Tamburlaine!

Tamh, Though Mars himself, the angry god of arms,
And all the earthly potentates conspire
To dispossess me of this diadem, 60

Yet will I wear it in despite of them.
As great commander of this eastern world,
If you but say that Tamburlaine shall reign.

AIL Long live Tamburlaine and reign in Asia I

Tamb. So now it is more surer on my head,
Than if the gods had held a Parliament,
And all pronounced me king of Persia.

{Eoceuni.

Preys. • So 4to.— 8vo. " thy. **

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( 48 )

ACT THE THIRD,

SCENE I.

Enter Bajazeth, the Kings of Fez, Morocco, and
Argier, with others in great pomp,

Baj, Great kings of Barbaiy and my portly bassoes,^
We hear the Tartars and the eastern thieves,
Under the conduct of one Tamburlaine,
Presume a bickering with your emperor,
And think to rouse us from our dreadful siege
Of the famous Grecian Constantinople.
You know our army is invincible ;
As many circumcised Turks we have,
And warlike bands of Christians renied,*
As hath the ocean or the Terrene sea ic

Small drops of water when the moon begins
To join in one her semicircled horns.
Yet would we not be braved with foreign power,
Nor raise our siege before the Grecians yield.
Or breathless lie before the city walls.

^ The old form of Pashas.

* Le, Christians who have'abjared their faith. Dyce compares a
passage of Sir John Maundevile (p. 209, ed. 1725) : — "And that Ydole
is the God of false Christen that han reneyed hire feythe."

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scBNK L] Tamiuriaim the Great. 49

JT. of Fez. RenowmM emperor, and mighty general,
Wliaty if you sent the bassoes of your guard
To charge him to remain in Asia,
Or else to threaten death and deadly arms
As from the mouth of mighty Bajazeth. 20

Baj\ Hie thee, my basso, fast to Persia,
Tell him thy lord, the Turkish emperor,
Dread lord of A&ic, Europe, and Asia,
Great king and conqueror of Gnecia,
The ocean Terrene, and the Coal-black sea.
The high and highest monarch of the world
Wills and commands (for say not I entreat),
Not once to set his foot on Africa,
Or spread his colours [once] in Graecia,
Lest he incur the fury of my wrath, 30

Tell him I am content to take a truce.
Because I hear he bears a valiant mind :
Bnt if, presuming on his silly power,
He be so mad to manage arms with me,
Then stay thou with him ; say, I bid thee so :
And if, before the. sun have measured heaven
With triple circuit, thou regreet us not,
We mean to take his morning's next arise
For messenger he will not be reclaimed.
And mean to fetch thee in despite of him. 40

JBas» Most great and puissant monarch of the earth,
Your basso will accomplish your behest,
And show your pleasure to the Persian,
As fits the legate of the stately Turt [Exit Ba&

VOL. I. D

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50 The First Part of [act m.

Arg. They say he is the king of Persia ;
But, if he dare attempt to stir your siege,
Twere requisite he should be ten times more,
For all flesh quakes at your magnificence.

Baj. True, Argier ; and tremble[s] at my looks.

K. of Mar. The spring is hindered by your smother-
ing host, so
For neither rain can fall upon the earth,
Nor sun reflex ^ his virtuous beams thereon,
The ground is mantled with such multitudes.

Baj, All this is true as holy Mahomet ;
And all the trees are blasted with our breaths.

K. of Fes, What thinks your greatness best to be
achieved
In pursuit of the city's overthrow?

Baj\ I will the captive pioners ^ of Argier
Cut off the water that by leaden pipes
Runs to the city from the mountain C^amon. 60

Two thousand horse shall forage up and down,
That no relief or succour come by land :
And all the sea my gallies countermand.
Then shall our footmen lie within the trench,
And with their cannons mouthed like Orcus' gulf,
Batter the walls, and we will enter in ;
And thus the Grecians shall be conquer^.

[Exeunt.

1 Cf. 4T. 4, 1 2, ** ReJUxing hues of blood upon their heads."

> The old form (found in Shakeqieare, Milton, &c.) of " pioneers."

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scsNE iL] Tamburlaine the Great. 5 1

SCENE IL
Enter Zenocrate, Agydas, Anippe, with others.

Agyd. Madam Zenocrate, may I presume
To know the cause of these unquiet fits,
That work such trouble to your wonted rest ?
Tis more than pity such a heavenly face
Should by heart's sorrow wax so wan and pale.
When your offensive rape by Tamburlaine,
(Which of your whole displeasures should be most,)
Hath seemed to be digested long ago.

2^eno. Although it be digested long ago,
As his exceeding favours have deserved, 10

And might content the Queen of Heaven, as well
As it hath changed my first conceived disdain.
Yet since a farther passion feeds my thoughts
With ceaseless and disconsolate conceits.
Which dyes my looks so lifeless as they are.
And might, if my extremes had full events.
Make me the ghastly counterfeit^ of death.

Agyd. Eternal heaven sooner be dissolved.
And all that pierceth Phoebus' silver eye,
Before such hap fall to Zenocrate ! 20

Zeno. Ah, life and soul, still hover in his breast
And leave my body senseless as the earth.
Or else unite you to his life and soul.
That I may live and die with Tamburlaine !

^ Image, picture.

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52 The First Part of [act m.

Enter behind Tamburlaine, Techelles, and others.

Agyd. With Tamburlaine 1 Ab, £ur Zenocrate,
Let not a man so vile and barbarous,
That holds you from your father in despite,
And keeps you from the honours of a queen, '
(Being supposed his worthless concubine,)
Be honoured with your love but for necessity. 30

So, now the mighty soldan hears of you,
Your highness needs not doubt but in short time
He will with Tamburlaine's destruction
Redeem you from thb deadly servitude.

Zeno. [Agydas] leave to wound me with these words.
And speak of Tamburlaine as he deserves.
The entertainment we have had of him
Is far from villany * or servitude,
And might in noble minds be counted princely.

Agyd. How can you ^cy one that looks so fierce, 40
Only disposed to martial stratagems ?
Who, when he shall embrace you in his arms,
Will tell you how many thousand men he slew ;
And when you look for amorous discourse.
Will rattle forth his facts of war and blood.
Too harsh a subject for your dainty ears.

Zeno. As looks the Sun through Nilus' flowing stream,
Or when the Morning holds him in her anns,
So looks my lordly love, fair Tamburlaine ;
His talk more sweeter than the Muses' song 50

^ Subjection, slavery.

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SCENE II.] Tamburlatne the Great. 53

They sung for honour 'gainst Pierides ;

Or when Minerva did with Neptune strive :

And higher would I rear my estimate

Than Juno, sister to the highest god,

If I were matched with mighty Tamburlaine.
Agyd. Yet be not so inconstant in your love ;

But let the young Arabian ^ live in hope

Alter your rescue to enjoy his choice.

You see though first the king of Persia,

Being a shepherd, seemed to love you much, 60

Now in his majesty he leaves those looks,

Those words of favour, and those comfortings,

And gives no more than common courtesies.

Zmo. Thence rise the tears that so distain my cheeks

Fearing his love through my unworthiness. —

[Tamburlaine goes to her and takes her away
lovingly by the hand^ looking wrathfully on
Agydas, and says nothing. Exeunt all but
Agydas.
Agyd. Betrayed by fortune and suspicious love,

Threatened with frowning wrath and jealousy,

Surprised with fear of* hideous revenge,

I stand aghast ] but most astonibd

To see his choler shut in secret thoughts, 70

And wrapt in silence of his angry soul.

Upon his brows was pourtrayed ugly death ;

And in his eyes the furies of his heart

1 Alcidamas, to whom Zenocrate had been betrothed.
«So4to.— 8vo."and.'»

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54 The First Part of [act m.

That shine as comets, menacing revenge,

And casts a pale complexion on his cheeks.

As when the seaman sees the Hyades

Gather an army of Cimmerian clouds,

(Auster and Aquilon with winged steeds,

All sweating, tilt about the watery heavens,

With shivering spears enforcing thunder claps, So

And from their shields strike flames of lightening,)

All-fearful folds his sails and sounds the main,

Lifting his prayers to the Heavens for aid

Against the terror of the winds and waves,

So fares Agydas for the late-felt frowns,

That sent a tempest to my daunted thoughts.

And make my soul divine her overthrow.

Enter Usumcasane and Techelles with a naked dagger,
Tech, See you, Agydas, how the king salutes you ?

He bids you prophesy what it imports.
Agyd, I prophesied before, and now I prove 90

The killing frowns of jealousy and love.

He needed not with words confirm my fear,

For words are vain where working tools present

The naked action of my threatened end :

It says, Agydas, thou shalt surely die.

And of extremities elect the least ;

More honour and less pain it may procure

To die by this resolved hand of thine,

Than stay the torments he and Heaven have sworn.

Then haste, Agydas, and prevent the plagues 100

Which thy prolonged fates may draw on thee.

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scENK III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 55

Go, wander, free from fear of tyrant's rage,

RemovM from the tonnents and the hell,

Wherewith he may excruciate thy soul,

And let Agydas by Agydas die,

And with this stab slumber eternally. [Stabs himself.

Tech. Usumcasane, see, how right the man
Hath hit the meaning of my lord, the king.

Usum. 'Faith, and Techelles, it was manly done \
And since he was so wise and honourable, "o

Let us afford him now the bearing hence.
And crave his triple-worthy burial.

Tech, Agreed, Casane ; we will honour him.

[Exeunt bearing out the body.

SCENE III.

-^w/^ Tamburlaine, Techelles, Usumcasane, Theri-
DAMAS, a Basso^ Zenocrate, Anippe, with others.

Tanib. Basso, by this thy lord and master knows
I mean to meet him in Bith3mia :
See how he comes ! tush, Turks are full of brags,
And menace more than they can well perform.
He meet me in the field, and fetch thee hence 1
Alas ! poor Turk ! his fortune is too weak
To encounter with the strength of Tamburlaine,
^^ well my camp, and speak indifferently \
Do not my captains and my soldiers look
As if they meant to conquer Africa, 10

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56 The First Part of [act m.

Bos, Your men are valiant, but their number few,
And cannot terrify his mighty host
My lord, the great commander of the world.
Besides fifteen contributory kings,
Hath now in arms ten thousand Janisaries,
Mounted on lusty Mauritanian steeds,
Brought to the war by men of Tripoli ;
Two hundred thousand footmen that have serv'd
In two set batdes fought in Graecla ;
And for the expedition of this war, 20

If he think good, can from his garrisons
Withdraw as many more to follow him.

Tech. The more he brings the greater is the spoil,
For when they perish by our warlike hands.
We mean to seat our footmen on their steeds,
And rifle all those stately Janisars.

Tamb, But will those kings accompany your lord ?

Bas. Such as his highness please; but some must stay
To rule the provinces he late subdued.

Tamb. \To his Officers^ Then fight courageously :
their crowns are yours ; 30

This hand shall set them on your conquering heads,
That made me emperor of Asia.

Usum. Let him bring millions infinite of men,
Unpeopling Western Africa and Greece,
Yet we assure us of the victory.

Ther. Even he that in a trice vanquished two kings,
More mighty than the Turkish emperor,
Shall rouse him out of Europe, and pursue
His scattered army till they yield or die.

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scEHx m.] Tamburlaine the Great. 57

Tamb. Well said, Theridamas ; speak in that mood ; 40
For will and shall best fitteth Tamburlaine,
Whose smiling stars give him assurM hope
Of martial triumph ere he meet his foes.
I that am termed the scourge and wrath of Ck>d,
The only fear and terror of the world,
Will first subdue the Turk, and then enlarge
Those Christian captives, which you keep as slaves,
Bmthening their bodies with your heavy chains,
And feeding them with thin and slender fare,
That naked row about the Terrene sea, 50

And when they chance to rest or breathe a space,
Are punished with bastones ^ so grievously,
That they lie panting on the galley's side,
And strive for life at every stroke they give.
These are the cruel pirates of Argier,
That damnM train, the scum of Africa,
Inhabited with straggling runagates,
That make quick havoc of the Christian blood ;
But as I live that town shall curse the time
That Tamburlaine set foot in Africa. 60

Enier Bajazeth with his Bassoes and contributory Kings,

Baj\ Bassoes and Janisaries of my guard,
Attend upon the person of your lord,
The greatest potentate of Africa.

1 ** Mr. Pyce says, * bastones, i.e. bastinadoes ; ' but the bastinado, as I
have seen it, yna applied to the soles of the feet, and was therefore a
punishment inapplicable to rowers, whom it would have rendered unfit
for work. ' Bastones * simply means batoos, sticks. "--CtowiMi^^OT.

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58 The First Part of [act m.

Tamb, Techelles, and the rest, prepare your swords ;
I mean to encounter with that Bajazeth.

Baj. Kings of Fez, Moroccus,* and Argier,
He calls me Bajazeth, whom you call lord !
Note the presumption of this Scythian slave !
I tell thee, villain ; those that lead my horse,
Have to their names titles of dignity, 70

And dar'st thou bluntly call me Bajazeth ?

Tarnb. And know, thou Turk, that those which lead
my horse,
Shall lead thee captive thorough Africa ;
And dar*st thou bluntly call me Tamburlaine ?

Baj, By Mahomet my kinsman's sepulchre,
And by the holy Alcoran I swear,
He shall be made a chaste and lustless eunuch,
And in my sarell ^ tend my concubines ;
And all his captains that thus stoutly stand.
Shall draw the chariot of my emperess, So

Whom I have brought to see their overthrow.

Tamb. By this my sword, that conquered Persia,
Thy fall shall make me famous through the world.
I will not tell thee how 111 handle thee,
But every common soldier of my camp
Shall smile to see thy miserable state-

K. of Fez. What means the mighty Turkish emperor,
To talk with one so base as Tamburlaine?

1 Cf. Pole's Battle tfAlatar, i. a :—

'* Those plots of ground
That to AfarrocMs lead the lower way.**
s SeiagUo (Fr. serail).

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 59

K, of Mar. Ye Moors and valiant men of Barbary,
How can ye suffer these indignities ? 90

K. of Arg, Leave words, and let them feel your lances'
points
IVhicb glided through the bowels of the Greeks.

Baj. Well said, my stout contributory kings :
Your threefold army and my hugy ^ host
Shall swallow up these base-born Persians.

Tuh, Puissant, reno¥rmed, and mighty Tamburlaine,
Why stay we thus prolonging of their lives ?

TTkt, I long to see those crowns won by our swords.
That we may rule as kings of Africa.

Usum, What coward would not fight for such a prize? 100

Tamb. Fight all courageously, and be you kings ;
I speak it, and my words are oracles.

Baj. Zabina, mother of three braver boys
Than Hercules, that in his infancy
Did pash ^ the jaws of serpents venomous ;
Whose hands are made to gripe a warlike lance,
Their shoulders broad for complete armour fit, —
Their limbs more large, and of a bigger size.
Than all the brats ysprong from Typhon's loins ;
Who, when they come unto their father's age, 1 10

Will batter turrets with their manly fists,
Sit here upon this royal chair of state,
And on thy head wear my imperial crown,

1 Old form of "huge."

s Stxike violently, dash. So Greene (in Orlando Furioso) i—
'* But as the son of Saturn in his wrath
PasKd all the mountains at Typhseus' head."

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6o The First Part of [act m.

Until I bring this sturdy Tamburlaine,
And all his captains bound in captive chains.

Zab. Such good success happen to Bajazeth !

Tamb. Zenocrate, the loveliest maid alive.
Fairer than rocks of pearl and precious stone.
The only paragon of Tamburlaine,
Whose eyes are brighter than the lamps of heaven, 1 20
And speech more pleasant than sweet harmony ;
That with thy looks canst clear the darkened sky.
And calm the rage of thundering Jupiter,
Sit down by her, adornM with my crown,
As if thou wert the empress of the world
Stir not, Zenocrate, until thou see
Me march victoriously with all my men,
Triiimphing over him and these his kings ;
Which I will bring as vassals to thy feet ;
Till then take thou my crown, vaunt of my worth, 130
And manage words with her, as we will arms.

Zaio, And may my love the king of Persia,
Return with victory and free from wound 1

Baj. Now shalt thou feel the force of Turkish arms.
Which lately made all Europe quake for fear.
I have of Turks, Arabians, Moors, and Jews,
Enough to cover all Bithynia.
Let thousands die ; their slaughtered carcasses
Shall serve for walls and bulwarks to the rest;
And as the heads of Hydra, so my power, 140

Subdued, shall stand as mighty as before.
If they should yield their necks unto the sword,
Thy soldiers' arms could not endure to strike

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SCENE ui.] Tamburlaine the Greats 6i

So many blows as I have heads for thee.^
Thou know'st not, foolish, hardy 2 Tamburlaine,
A¥hat 'tis to meet me in the open field,
That leave no ground for thee to march upon.

Tamb. Our conquering swords shall marshal us the
way
We use to march upon the slaughtered foe,
Trampling their bowels with our horses' hoofs ; 150

Brave horses bred on th' white Tartarian hills ;
My camp is like to Julius Caesar's host,
That never fought but had the victory;
Nor in Pharsalia was there such hot war,
As these, my followers, willingly would have.
Legions of spirits fleeting ^ in the air
Direct our bullets and our weapons' points,
And make your strokes to wound the senseless light,^
And when she sees our bloody colours spread.
Then Victory begins to take her flight, 160

Resting herself upon my milk-white tent ? —
But come, my lords, to weapons let us fall ;
The field is ours, the Turk, his wife and alL

\Exit^ with his followers,

1 Dyce needlessly altered '* thee" to '* them.'*
« Dyoe reads " foolish-hardy,"

« Fleet=float, swim. In his sonnet on the Return of Spring, Surrey
writes: —

*' The fishes/^/tf with new repaired scale."

4 The old copies give our for your and lure for light. Ed. 1836
corrected lure into lights a reading which I adopt doubtfully, and Dyce
nuuSe the other correction. Peele imitates this line in David and
Bethseba:—

"And make their weapons wound the senseless toirnds,'*

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62 The First Part of [act hi.

Baj. Come, kings and bassoes, let us glut our swords.
That thirst to drink the feeble Persian's blood.

\Exit with his followers.

Zab. Base concubine, must thou be placed by me.
That am the empress of the mighty Turk?

Zmo, Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss ! ^
Callest thou me concubine, that am betrothed
Unto the great and mighty Tamburlaine ? 170

2Uib. To Tamburlaine, the great Tartarian thief!

Zeno. Thou wilt repent these lavish words of thine,
When thy great basso-master and thyself
Must plead for mercy at his kingly feet,
And sue to me to be your advocate.^

Zab. And sue to thee ! — I tell thee, shameless girl.
Thou shalt be laundress to my waiting maid I
How lik'st thou her, Ebea?— Will she serve?

Ebea. Madam, perhaps, she thinks she is too fine,
But I shall turn her into other weeds, 180

And make her dainty fingers fall to worL

Zeno, Heafst thou, Anippe, how thy drudge doth talk ?
And how my slave, her mistress, menaceth ?
Both for their sauciness shall be employed
To dress the common soldiers' meat and drink,
For we will scorn they should come near ourselves.

Anip, Yet sometimes let your highness send for them
To do the work my chambermaid disdains.

[They sound to the battle within^

1 Dyce quotes from Cotgrave :— " A fat basse, Femme bien grasse et
grosse ; une coche."
» So4to.— 8yo. "advocates.**

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scsNK m.] Tamburlaine the Great. 63

Zeno, Ye gods and powers that govern Persia,
And made my lordly love her worthy king, 190

Now strengthen him against the Turkish Bajazeth,
And let his foes, like flocks of fearful roes
Pursued by hunters fly his angry looks,
That I may see him issue conqueror !

Zab. Now, Mahomet, solicit God himself,
And make him rain down murdering shot from heaven
To dash the Scythians' brains, and strike them dead,
That dare to manage arms with him
That offered jewels to thy sacred shrine.
When first he warred against the Christians 1 200

\To the battle again.

Zefio. By this the Turks lie weltering in their blood,
And Tamburlaine is Lord of Africa.

Zab. Thou art deceived — I heard the trumpets sound,
As when my emperor overthrew the Greeks,
And led them captive into Africa.
Straight will I use thee as thy pride deserves —
Prepare thyself to live and die my slave.

Zauf. If Mahomet should come from heaven and
swear
yij royal lord is slain or conquered.
Yet should he not persuade me otherwise 210

But that he lives and will be conqueror.

Bntcr BKjAZEm^ pursued by Tamburlaine; theyfighty
and Bajazeth is overcame.

Tamb. Now, king of bassoes, who is conqueror ?

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64 The First Part of [act hl

Baj, Thou, by the fortune of this damnM foil^
Tatnb. Where are your stout contributory kings ?

Enter Techelles, Theridamas, and Usumcasane.

Tech, We have their crowns — their bodies strow the
field.

Tamh, Each man a crown! — ^Why kingly fought i'
faith.
Deliver them into my treasury.

Zeno. Now let me offer to my gracious lord
His royal crown again so highly won.

Tamh, Nay, take the crown from her, Zenocrate, 220
And crown me emperor of Africa.

Zab, No, Tamburlaine : though now thou gat the best,
Thou shalt not yet be lord of Africa.

Ther. Give her the crown, Turkess ; you were best

\He takes it from her.

Zab. Injurious villains ! — thieves ! — ^runagates !
How dare you thus abuse my majesty ?

Ther. Here, madam, you are empress ; she is none

[Gives it to Zenocrate.

Tamb. Not now, Theridamas ; her time is past
The pillars that have bolstered up those terms,
Are fallen in clusters at my conquering feet 230

Zab. Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed.

1 Old copies, *' soiL'* " Foil of course meaning sword. But the old
editions read soil^ which is very probably (?) right, as referring to the
ill-chosen field of battle." — Cunningkam, I take /ail to mean *' check,
defeat," as in line 235, *' So great ti/bil by any foceign foe.'*

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SCENE ML] Tamburlaine the Great. 65

Tamb, Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth.

Baj, Ah, £air Zabina \ we have lost the field ;
And never had the Turkish emperor
So great a foil by any foreign foe.
Now will the Christian miscreants be glad,
Ringing with joy their superstitious bells,
And making bonfires for my overthrow.
But, ere I die, those foul idolaters
Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones. 240

For though the glory of this day be lost,
Afric and Greece have garrisons enough
To make me sovereign of the earth again.

Tamb. Those wallM garrisons will I subdue,
And write myself great lord of Africa
So firom the East unto the fiurthest West
Shall Tamburlaine extend his puissant arm.
The galleys and those pilling ^ brigandines,
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf.
And hover in the Straits for Christian wreck, 250

Shall lie at anchor in the isle Asant,^
Until the Persian fleet and men of war,
Sailing along the oriental sea,
Have fetched about the Indian continent,
Even from Persepolis to Mexico,
And thence unto the straits of Jubalt^ ;
Where they shall meet and join their force in one.
Keeping in awe the bay of Portingale,

1 Plundering. * Zante.

VOL. I.

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66 Tamburlaine the Great. [act m.

And all the ocean by the British * shore ;

And by this means 111 win the world at last 260

Baj, Yet set a ransom on me, Tamburlaine.

Tamb, What, think'st thou Tamburlaine esteems thy
gold?
ni make the kings of India, ere I die,
Offer their mines to sue for peace to me.
And dig for treasure to appease my wrath.
Come, bind them both, and one lead in the Turk
The Turkess let my love's maid lead away.

\J7uy bind them.

Baj, Ah, villains ! — dare ye touch my sacred arms ?
O Mahomet ! — O sleepy Mahomet !

Zab, O cursed Mahomet, that makes us thus 270

The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous !

Tamb, Come, bring them in; and for this happy

conquest.

Triumph and solemnise a martial feast \Exeunt,

\ "^

I So4to.— 8va "brightest"

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( 67 )

ACT THE FOURTH.

SCENE I.

EfUtr the Soldan of Egypt, Capolin, Lords^ and a
Messenger,

Sold. Awake, ye men of Memphis ! ^ — hear the clang
Of Scythian trumpets ! — ^hear the basilisks,*
That, roaring, shake Damascus' turrets down !
The rogue of Volga holds Zenocrate,
The Soldan's daughter, for his concubine,
And with a troop of thieves and vagabonds,
Hath spread his colours to our high disgrace,
While you, faint-hearted, base Egyptians,
Lie slumbering on the flowery banks of Nile,
As crocodiles that unafifrighted rest, lo

While thundering cannons rattle on their skins.

Mess, Nay, mighty Soldan, did your greatness see

^ "These words are pat into the mouth of Judas in Fletcher's
BcmdMca, at the commencement of Act ii. ; and in Fletcher's WU
wUkout Money ^ v. s, we find 'Thou man of Memphis."*— Z>|rd«.

* Pieces of ordnance, so named from their fancied resemblance to the
serpent.

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68 The First Part of [act iv.

The frowning looks of fiery Tamburlaine,
That with his terror and imperious eyes,
Commands the hearts of his associates,
It might amaze your royal majesty.

Sold, Villain, I tell thee, were that Tamburlaine
As monstrous ^ as Gorgon prince of hell,
The Soldan would not start a foot from hinL
But speak, what power hath he ?

Mess. Mighty lord, 20

Three hundred thousand men in armour clad,
Upon their prancing steeds disdainfully,
With wanton paces trampling on the ground :
Five hundred thousand footmen threatening shot,
Shaking their swords, their spears, and iron bills,
Environing their standard round, that stood
As bristle-pointed as a thorny wood :
Their warlike engines and munition
Exceed the forces of their martial men.

Sold. Nay, could their numbers countervail the
stars, 30

Or ever-drizzling ' drops of April showers,
Or withered leaves that Autumn shaketh down,
Yet would the Soldan by his conquering power
So scatter and consume them in his rage.
That not a man should' live to rue their fall

Capo, So oiight your highness, had you time to sort

^ A trisyUable, of coiixse.

s So 4to.— 8vo. " Or dmling drops.*

» So4ta— 8va "shaL"

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scENi L] Tamburlaine the Great. 69

Your fighting men, and raise your rojal host ;
But Tamburlaine, by expedition.
Advantage takes of your unreadiness.

Sold, Let him take all the advantages he can. 40

Were all the world conspired to fight for him,
Nay, were he devil, as he is no man.
Yet in revenge of fair Zenocrate,
Whom he detaineth in despite of us,
This arm should send him down to Erebus,
To shroud his shame in darkness of the night

Mess. Pleaseth your Mightiness to understand,
His resolution far exceedeth all.
The first day when he pitcheth down his tents.
White is their hue, and on his silver crest, 50

A snowy feather spangled white he bears,
To signify the mildness of his mind,
That, satiate with spoil, refuseth blood.
But when Aurora mounts the second time
As red as scarlet is his furniture ;
Then must his kindled wrath be quenched with blood.
Not sparing any that can manage arms ;
But if these threats move not submission.
Black are his colours, black pavilion \
His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes, 60
And jetty feathers, menace death and hell ;
Without respect of sex, degree, or age.
He razeth all his foes with fire and sword.

Sold. Merciless villain ! — peasant, ignorant
Of lawful arms or martial discipline )
Pillage and murder are his usual trades.

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70 The First Part of [act nr.

The slave usurps the glorious name of war.

See, Capolin, the fair Arabian king,

That hath been disappointed by this slave

Of my fair daughter, and his princely love, 70

May have fresh warning to go war with us,

And be revenged for her disparagement. \ExeufU,

SCENE 11.

Enter Tamburlaine, Techelles, Theridamas, Usum-
CASANE, Zenocrate, Anippe, two MooTs drawing
Bajazeth in a cage^ and his Wife following him.

Tamb, Bring out my footstool.

[Bajazeth is taken out of the cage.

Baf Ye holy priests of heavenly Mahomet,
That, sacrificing, slice and cut your flesh,
Staining his altars with your purple blood ;
Make Heaven to frown and every fixfed star
To suck up poison from the moorish fens,
And pour it ^ in this glorious ^ tyrant's throat !

Tamb. The chiefest god, first mover of that sphere,
Enchased with thousands ever-shining lamps,
Will sooner bum the glorious frame of Heaven, 10

Than it should * so conspire my overthrow.
But, villain I thou that wishest this to me.
Fall prostrate on the low disdainful earth.

1 So 4to.— OmiUed in 8vo.

s Boastful

« So 4to.— 8va •' should it"

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SCENE II.] Tamburlaine the Great. 7 1

And be the footstool of great Tamburlaine^
That I may rise into my royal throne.

Baj. First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword,
And sacrifice my soul to death and hell,
Before I yield to such a slavery.

Tamb. Base villain, vassal, slave to Tamburlaine !
Unworthy to embrace or touch the ground, 30

That bears the honour of my royal weight ;
Stoop, villain, stoop ! — Stoop ! for so he bids
That may command thee piecemeal to be torn.
Or scatteredi like the lofty cedar trees
Struck with the voice of thundering Jupiter.

Baj, Then, as I look down to the damnM fiends,
Fiends look on me ! and thou, dread god of hell,
With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth,
And make it swallow both of us at once !

[Tamburlaine gets up on him to his chair.

Tamb. Now clear the triple region of the air, 30

And let the Majesty of Heaven behold
Their scourge and terror tread on emperors.
Smile stars, that reigned at my nativity.
And dim the brightness of your ^ neighbour lamps !
Disdain to borrow Ught of Cynthia !
For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth,
First rising in the East with mild aspect,
But fixM now in the Meridan line.
Will send up fire to your turning spheres,
And cause the sun to borrow light of you. 40

1 Old copies "Ulcir/'

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72 The First Part of [act iv.

My sword struck fire from his coat of steel

Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk ;

As when a fiery exhalation,

Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud

Fighting for passage, makes the welkin crack,

And casts a flash of lightning to the earth :

But ere I march to wealthy Persia,

Or leave Damascus and the Egyptian fields.

As was the fame of Clymene's brain-sick son.

That almost brent the axle-tree of heaven, 50

So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot

Fill all the air with fiery meteors :

Then when the sky shall wax as red as blood

It shall be said I made it red myself,

To make me think of nought but blood and war.

Zah. Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty
Unlawfully usurp'st the Persian seat,
Dar'st thou that never saw an emperor,
Before thou met my husband in the field.
Being thy captive, thus abuse his state, 60

Keeping his kingly body in a cage^
That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces
Should have prepared to entertain his grace?
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet,
Whose feet the kings of Africa have kissed.

Tech. You must devise some torment worse^ my lord.
To make these captives rein their lavish tongue&

Tamb. Zenocrate, look better to your slave.

Zcno. She is my handmaid's slave, and she shall look

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SCENE 11.] Tamburlatne the Great., 73

That these abases flow not from ^ her tongue : 70

Chide her, Anippe

Anip. Let these be warnings for you then, my
slave,
How you abuse the person of the king ;
Or else I swear to have you whipt, stark-naked.

Baj, Great Tamburlaine, great in my overthrow,
Ambitious pride shall make thee fall as low,
For treading on the back of Bajazeth,
That should be horsM on four mighty kings.

Tamb, Thy names, and titles, and thy dignities
Are fled from Bajazeth and remain with me,
That will maintain it 'gainst a world of kings. go

Put him in again. \They put him into the cage,

Baj\ Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth ?
Omfiision light on him that helps thee thus !

Tamb, There, while he lives, shall Bajazeth be kept ;
And, where I go, be thus in triumph drawn ;
And thou, his wife, shalt ^ feed him with the scraps
My servitors shall bring thee from my board ;
For he that gives him other food than this,
SbaU sit by him and starve to death himself ;
This is my mind and I will have it so. 90

Not all the kings and emperors of the earth.
If they would lay their crowns before my feet,
Shall ransom him, or take him from his cage
The ages that shall talk of Tamburlaine,

1 So 4to.--8vo. " in."
«So4ta— 8vo. "shal."

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74 The First Part of [act iv.

Even from this day to Plato's wondrous year,*

Shall talk how I have handled Bajazeth ;

These Moors, that drew him from Bithynia,

To fair Damascus, where we now remain,

Shall lead him with us wheresoe'er we ga

Techelles, and my loving followers, loo

Now may we see Damascus' lofty towers,

Like to the shadows of Pyramides,

That with their beauties grace ^ the Memphian fields :

The golden stature ^ of their feathered bird

That spreads her wings upon the city's walls

Shall not defend it from our battering shot :

The townsmen mask in silk and cloth of gold.

And every house is as a treasury :

The men, the treasure, and the town are ours.

Ther. Your tents of white now pitched before the
gates, no

And gentle flags of amity displayed,
I doubt not but the governor will yield.
Offering Damascus to your majesty.

Tanib, So shall he have his life and all the rest :
But if he stay until the bloody flag
Be once advanced on my vermilion tent.
He dies, and those that kept us out so long.
And when they see us march in black array.
With mournful streamers hanging down their heads.

1 See Plato's Timaus, p. 39.
« Old copies, ''gracU"

• The word "statue" is often written "stature." See Nares*
Glossary,

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scBNK III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 75

Were in that city all the world contained, 120

Not one should 'scape, but perish by our swords.

Zeno, Yet would you have some pity for my sake>
Because it is my country, and my father's.

Tatnh, Not for the world, Zenocrate ; I've sworn.
Comej bring in the Turk. \^Exeunt

SCENE III.

Enter Soldan, Arabia, Capolin, and Soldiers with
streaming colours.

Sold. Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environed with brave Argolian knights,
To chase the savage Calydonian boar.
Or Cephalus with lusty Theban youths
Against the wolf that angry Themis sent
To waste and spoil the sweet Aonian fields,
A monster of five hundred thousand heads,
G>mpact of rapine, piracy, and spoil.
The scum of men, the hate and scourge of God,
Raves in ^Egyptia and annoyeth us. i

My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine,
A sturdy felon and ^ a base-bred thief,
By murder raised to the Persian crown,
That dares control us in our territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,

^ So 4to.— Omitted in 8vo.

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76 The First Part of [act iv.

Join your Arabians with the Soldan's power,

Let us unite our royal bands in one,

And hasten to remove Damascus' siege.

It is a blemish to the majesty

And high estate of mighty emperors, 20

That such a base usurping vagabond

Should brave a king, or wear a princely crown.

Arab, Renowmfed Soldan, have ye lately heard
The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth
About the confines of Bithynia ?
The slavery wherewith he persecutes
The noble Turk and his great emperess ?

Sold. I have, and sorrow for his bad success ;
But noble lord of great Arabia,

Be so persuaded that the Soldan is 30

No more dismayed with tidings of his fall,
Than in the haven when the pilot stands,
And views a stranger's ship rent in the winds,
And shivered against a craggy rock ;
Yet in compassion of his wretched state,
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,
Confirming it with Ibis' holy name.
That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hour,
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong
Unto the hallowed person of a prince, 40

Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long
As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust

Arab, Let grief and fury hasten on revenge ;
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel
Such plagues as we and heaven can pour on hioL

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scBNE III.] Tamburlcdne the Great 77

I long to break my spear upon his crest,
And prove the weight of his victorious arm ;
For Fame, I fear, hath been too prodigal
In sounding through the world his partial praise.

Sold. Capolin, hast thou surveyed our powers? 50

CapoL Great emperors of Egypt and Arabia,
The number of your hosts united is
A hundred and fifty thousand horse ;
Two hundred thousand foot, brave men at arms,
Courageous, and full of hardiness.
As firolick as the hunters in the chase
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.

Arab. My mind presageth fortunate success ;
And Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee
The utter ruin of thy men and thee. 60

Sold, Then rear your standards; let your sounding
drums
Direct our soldiers to Damascus walls.
Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Soldan comes.
And leads with him the great Arabian king.
To dim thy baseness and obscurity.
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil ;
To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.

\Exiunt,

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78 Tke First Part of [act iv.

SCENE IV.

The Banquet ; and to it come Tamburlaine, all in scarlet}
Theridamas, Techelles, Usumcasane, Bajazeth
\in his cage\t Zabina, and others.

Tamb, Now hang our bloody colours by Damascus,
Reflexing hues of blood upon their heads.
While they walk quivering on their city walls.
Half dead for fear before they feel my wrath,
Then let us freely banquet and carouse
Full bowls of wine unto the god of war
That means to fill your helmets full of gold,
And make Damascus spoils as rich to you,
As was to Jason Colchos' golden fleece.
And now, Bajazeth, hast thou any stomach ? lo

Baj\ I, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine, as I could
willingly feed upon thy blood-raw heart.*

Tamb, Nay thine own is easier to come by; pluck
out that; and 'twill serve thee and thy wife : Well, Zeno-
crate, Techelles, and the rest, fall to your victuals.

Baj. Fall to, and never may your meat digest !
Ye furies, that can mask invisible.
Dive to the bottom of Avemus' pool,

1 In the " Enventorey of all the aparell of the Lord Admeralles men,
taken the 13th of March 1598/' we find entered " Tamberlanes breches
of ciymson vclvett." — Henslowis Diary, cd. Collier, p. 275.
s With the omission of a word the passage runs into verse :—
" I, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine,
As I could feed upon thy blood-raw heart"
I haye retained the old spelling / for aye.

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scuNB nr.i Tatnburlatne the Great. 79

And in your hands bring hellish poison up

And squeeze it in the cup of Tamburlaine 1 20

Or, winged snakes of Lema, cast your stings,

And leave your venoms in this tyrant's dish 1

Zab, And may this banquet prove as ominous
As Progne's to the adulterous Thracian king,
That fed upon the substance of his child.

Ze9u>» My lord, [my lord] how can you suffer these
Outrageous curses by these slaves of yours ?

Tamb. To let them see, divine Zenocrate,
I glory in the curses of my foes,

Having the power from the imperial heaven 30

To turn them all upon their proper heads.

Tech, I pray you give them leave, madam ; this speech
is a goodly refreshing to them.

Tktr, But if his highness would let them be fed, it
would do them more good.

Tamb. Sirrah, why fall you not to ? — are you so daintily
brought up, you cannot eat your own flesh ?

Baj, First, legions of devils shall tear thee in pieces.

Vsum. Villain, know'st thou to whom thou speakest ?

Tamb, O, let him alone. Here ; eat, sir ; take it from [40
my sword's point, or- I'll thrust it to thy heart

[Bajazeth takes it and stamps upon it.

Ther, He stamps it under his feet, my lord.

Tamb. Take it up, villain, and eat it ; or I will make
thee slice the brawns of thy arms into carbonadoes ^ and
eat them..

^ Rashen.

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8o The First Part of [act iv.

Usum. Nay, 'twere better he killed his wife, and dien
he shall be sure not to be starved, and he be provided
for a month's victual beforehand

Tamb. Here is my dagger : despatch her while she is
fat, for if she live but a while longer, she will fall into [50
a consumption with fretting, and then she will not be
worth the eating.

Ther. Dost thou think that Mahomet will suffer this ?

Tech. 'Tis like he will when he cannot let ^ it

Tamb. Go to ; fall to your meat. — What, not a bit !
Belike he hath not been watered to-day; give him some
drink.

\They give htm water to drinks and he flings it upon
the ground.

Tamb. Fast, and welcome, sir, while ^ hunger make
you eat How now, Zenocrate, do not the Turk and his
wife make a goodly show at a banquet ? 60

Zeno. Yes, my lord

Ther. Methinks, 'tis a great deal better than a consort
of musick.

Tamb. Yet musick would do wellto cheer up Zenocrate.
Pray thee, tell, why thou art so sad ? — If thou wilt have a
song, the Turk shall strain his voice. But why is it ?

Zeno, My lord, to see my father's town besieged,
The country wasted where myself was bom.
How can it but afflict my very soul ?
If any love remain in you, my lord, 70

Or if my love unto your majesty

1 Hinder. • Until

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scxNEiv.] Tamburlairu the Great 8i

May merit favour at your highness' hands.
Then raise your si^e from fair Damascus walls.
And with my father take a friendly truce.

Tamb. Zenocrate, were Egypt Jove's own land,
Yet would I with my sword make Jove to stoop.
I will confute those blind geographers
That make a triple region in the world,
Excluding regions which I mean to trace,
And with this pen reduce them to a map, So

\PoinHng to his sword.
Calling the provinces cities and towns.
Alter my name and thine, 2^nocrate.
Here at Damascus will I make the point
That shall begin the perpendicular \
And would'st thou have me buy thy father's love
With such a loss? — Tell me, Zenocrate.

Ztno, Honour still wait on happy Tamburlaine ;
Yet give me leave to plead for him my lord.

Tamb. Content thyself : his person shall be safe
And all the friends of fair Zenocrate, 90

If with their lives they may be pleased to yield,
Or may be forced to make me emperor ;
For Egypt and Arabia must be mine. —
Feed you slave ; thou ma/st think thyself happy to be
fed from my trencher.

Baj. My empty stomach, full of idle heat,
Draws bloody humours from my feeble parts.
Preserving life by hasting cruel death.
My veins are pale ; my sinews hard and dry ;
My joints benumbed ; unless I eat, I die. loo

vol- L F

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82 The First Part of [act iv.

Zab, Eat, Bajazeth : and let us live
In spite of them, — looking some happy power
Will pity and enlarge us.

Tamb. Here, Turk ; wilt thou have a clean trencher ?

Baj, I, tyrant, and more meat

Tamb. Soft, sir ; you must be dieted ; too much eat-
ing will make you surfeit

Ther. So it would, my lord, 'specially having so small
a walk and so little exercise.

\A second course is brought in of crowns.

Tamb. Theridamas,Techelles, and Casane, here are [no
the cates you desire to finger, are they not ?

Ther, I, my lord : but none save kings must feed with
these.

Tech, 'Tis enough for us to see them, and for Tam-
burlaine only to enjoy them.

Tamb. Well ; here is now to the Soldan of Egypt, the
King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damascus. Now^
take these three crowns, and pledge me, my contributory
kings. — I crown you here, Theridamas, King of Argier ;
Techelles, King of Fez; and Usumcasane, King of [120
Moroccus. How say you to this, Turk? These are
not your contributory kings.

1 I am not sure that I am right in printing the whole of this speech
as prose. With slight alteration a part of it goes easily into verse : —
" Now take these three crowns,
And pledge me, my contributory kings.
— I crown you here, Theridamas, King of Aigier ;
Techelles, King of Fez ; Usumcasane,
King of Moroccus. How say you to this, Turk ?
These are not your contributory kings."

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SCENE IV.] Tamburlaine the Great, 83

Baj. Nor shall they long be thine, I warrant them.

Tamb. Kings of Argier, Moroccus, and of Fez,
You that have marched with happy Tamburlaine
As far as from the frozen plage ^ of heaven,
Unto the watery morning's ruddy bower,
And thence by land unto the torrid zone,
Deserve these titles I endow you with,
By valour* and by magnanimity. 130

Your births shall be no blemish to your fame,
For virtue is the fount whence honour springs,
And they are worthy she investeth kings.

T?ur. And since your highness hath so well vouch-
safed;
If we deserve them not with higher meeds
Than erst our states and actions have retained
Take them away again and make us slaves.

Tamb, Well said, Theridamas ; when holy fates
Shall 'stablish me in strong iEgyptia,
We mean to travel to the antarctick pole, 140

Conquering the people underneath our feet,
And be renowmed as never emperors were.
Zenocrate, I will not crown thee yet,
Until with greater honours I be graced. \Exeunt,

1 Dyce's correction for *' place " of the old copies. Cf. Second Part^
i. I, 1. 68.

* Old copies "value."

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( 84 )

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE 1.

Enter the Governor of Damasco,^ with three or four
Citizens^ and four Virgins^ with branches of laurel
in thdr hands.

Gov, Still doth this man, or rather god of war,
Batter our walls and beat our turrets down ;
And to resist with longer stubbornness,
Or hope of rescue from the Soldan's power,
Were but to bring our wilful overthrow,
And make us desperate of our threatened lives.
We see his tents have now been altered
With terrors to the last and cruellest hue.
His coal-black colours everywhere advanced,
Threaten our city with a general spoil ; i©

And if we should with common rites of arms
Offer our safeties to his clemency,
I fear the custom, proper to his sword.
Which he observes as parcel of his fame,

I So Greene (in Friar Bacon) : —

** Edward, art thou the famous Prince of Wales
Who at Damauo beat the Saracens ? "

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^

scBNEL] Tamburlaine the Great 85

Intending so to terrify the world.

By any innovation or remorse

Will never be dispensed with 'till our deaths;

Therefore, for these our harmless virgins' sakes.

Whose honours and whose lives rely on him,

Let us have hope that their unspotted prayers, 20

Their blubbered ^ cheeks, and hearty, humble moans.

Will melt his fury into some remorse,

And use us like a loving conqueror.

I Virg, If humble suits or imprecations,^
(Uttered with tears of wretchedness and blood
Shed from the heads and hearts of all our sex,
Some made your wives and some your children)
Might have entreated your obdurate breasts
To entertain some care ^ of our securities
While only danger beat upon our walls, 30

These more than dangerous warrants of our death
Had never been erected as they be,
Nor you depend on such weak helps as we.

Gov. Well, lovely virgins, think our country's care,
Our love of honour, loath to be inthralled
To foreign powers and rough imperious yokes.
Would not with too much cowardice or fear,
(Before all hope of rescue were denied)
Submit yourselves and us to servitude.
Therefore in that your safeties and our own, 40

Your honours, liberties, and lives were weighed
In equal care and balance with our own,

1 Cf. Dido, V. 5 :— " And woeful Dido by these blubbered cheeks."
* Eotieaties. » So 410.— Bvo. "cares."

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86 TIte First Part of [act v.

Endure as we the malice of our stars,
The wrath of Tamburlaine and power of wars ;
Or be the means the overweighing heavens
Have kept to qualify these hot extremes,
And bring us pardon in your cheerful looks.

2 Virg, Then here before the Majesty of Heaven
And holy patrons ^ of ^Egyptia,

With knees and hearts submissive we entreat 50

Grace to our words and pity to our looks
That this device may prove propitious,
And through the eyes and ears of Tambiu-laine
Convey events of mercy to his heart ;
Grant that these signs of victory we yield
May bind the temples of his conquering head,
To hide the folded furrows of his brows.
And shadow his displeasM countenance
With happy looks of ruth and lenity.
Leave us, my lord, and loving countrymen ; 60

What simple virgins may persuade, we will.

Gov. Farewell, sweet virgins, on whose safe return
Depends our city, liberty, and lives.

\Exeunt Governor and Citizens; manent Virgins,

Enter Tamburlaine, Techelles, Theridamas, Usum-
CASANE, with others : Tamburlaine all in black and
very melancholy,

Tamb, What, are the turtles frayed out of their nests ?
Alas, poor fools ! must you be first shall feel

1 The 8vo. reads " Patrone$," which is peifaaps meant for "Pa-
troness,** i.e. ** Isis."

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SCENE I.] Tamburlaine the Great. 87

The sworn destruction of Damascus walls ? ^
They knew my custom ; could they not as well
Have sent ye out, when first my milk-white flags,^
Through which sweet mercy threw her gentle beams,
Reflexing them on your disdainful eyes, 70

As now, when fury and incensM hate
Flings slaughtering terror from my coal-black tents,
And tells for truth submissions comes too late ?

I Virg, Most happy king and emperor of the earth.
Image of honour and nobility.
For whom the powers divine have made the world.
And on whose throne the holy graces sit ;
In whose sweet person is comprised the sum
Of nature's skill and heavenly majesty ;
Pity our plights ! O pity poor Damascus I 80

Pity old age, within whose silver hairs
Honour and reverence evermore have reigned !
Pity the marriage bed, where many a lord.
In prime and glory of his loving joy,
Embraceth now with tears of ruth and blood
The jealous body of his fearful wife.
Whose cheeks and hearts so punished with con-
ceit.
To think thy puissant, never-stayed arm,
Will part their bodies, and prevent their souls
From heavens of comfort yet their age might bear, 90

1 I ha^e added the word "walls," as it is required to complete the
line. The expression *' Damascus walls " occurs repeatedly.

s An anacolnthon. Some such word as " appeared ** may be under-
stood. [In the next line but one Dyce and Cunningham read " re-
flexed " for the old copies' " reflexing. "]

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88 The First Part of [act v.

Now wax all pale and withered to the death.

As well for grief our ruthless governor

Hath ^ thus refused the mercy of thy hand,

(Whose sceptre angels kiss and furies dread,)

As for their liberties, their loves, or lives !

O then for these, and such as we ourselves,

For us, our infants, and for all our bloods.

That never nourished thought against thy rule,

Pity, O pity, sacred emperor,

The prostrate service of this wretched town, loo

And take in sign thereof this gilded wreath ;

Whereto each man of rule hath given his hand.

And wished,^ as worthy subjects, happy means

To be investers of thy royal brows

Even with the true Egyptian diadem !

Tamb, Virgins, in vain you labour to prevent
That which mine honour swears shall be performed
Behold my sword ! what see you at the point ?

I Virg, Nothing but fear, and fatal steel, my lord.

Tamb. Your fearful minds are thick and misty then \ i lo
For there sits Death ; there sits imperious Death
Keeping his circuit by the slicing edge.
But I am pleased you shall not see him there ;
He now is seated on my horsemen's spears.
And on their points his fleshless body feeds.
Techelles, straight go charge a few of them
To charge these dames, and show my servant, Death,
Sitting in scarlet on their arm^d spears.

AIL O pity us 1

1 So 4to.— 8vo. •' haue." » So 4to. -8vo. '« wish.»»

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SONS L] Tamburlaine the Great. 89

Tomb. Away with them, J say, and show them Death.

\The Virgins are taken out,
I will not spare these proud Egyptians, 121

Nor change my martial observations
For all the wealth of Gihon's golden waves,
Or for the love of Venus, would she leave
The angry god of arms and lie with me.
They have refused the offer of their lives,
And know my customs are as peremptory
As wrathful planets, death, or destiny.

Enter Techelles.

What, have your horsemen shown the virgins Death ?

Tech, They have, my lord, and on Damascus walls, 130
Have hoisted up their slaughtered carcases.

Tamb. A sight as baneful to their souls, I think,
As are Thessalian drugs or Mithridate : ^
But go, my lords, put the rest to the sword.

[Exeunt Lords,
Ah, fair Zenocrate . — divine Zenocrate I —
Fair is too foul an epithet for thee,
That in thy passion for thy country's love.
And fear to see thy kingly father's harm,
With hair dishevelled wip'st thy watery cheeks ;
And, like to Flora ^ in her mormng pride, 140

1 An antidote distilled from poisons.

* *^ In England i PamassuSy 1600, occur the following lines by Chap-
man, which bear a resemblance to Uie poetical image in the text too
striking to have been accidental : —

' See where she issues in her beauty's pomp,
As Flora to salute the morning sun,

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90 The First Part of [act v.

Shaking her silver tresses in the air,

Rain'st on the earth resolved pearl in showers,

And sprinklest sapphires on thy shining face,

Where beauty, mother to the Muses, sits

And comments volumes with her ivory pen.

Taking instructions from thy flowing eyes,

Eyes, when that Ebena steps to heaven,

In silence of thy solemn evening's walk,

Make, in ^ the mantle of the richest night,

The moon, the planets, and the meteors, light ; 1 50

These angels, in their crystal armours fight

A doubtful battle with my tempted thoughts

For Egypt's freedom, and the Soldan's life \

His life that so consumes Zenocrate,

Whose sorrows lay more siege unto my soul,

Than all my army to Damascus walls :

And neither Persia's ^ sovereign, nor the Turk

Troubled my senses with conceit of foil

So much by much as doth Zenocrate.

What is beauty, saith my sufferings, then? 160

If all the pens that ever poets held

Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,

And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,

Their minds, and muses on admired themes ;

Who when she shakes her tresses in the air
Rains on the earth dissolvM pearl in showers,
Which with his beams the sun exhales to heaven.' "

— Bfvu^hUm,
1 Old copies (and Dyce) give "making.** The correction is Cim.
ningham's.
> Okl copies give " Perseans " and *' Persians."

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SCENE I.] Tamburlaine the Great 91

If all the heavenly quintessence they still

From their immortal flowers of poesy,

Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive

The highest reaches of a human wit ;

If these had made one poem's period,

And all combined in beauty's worthiness, 170

Yet should there hover in their restless heads

One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the

least.
Which into words no virtue can digest.
But how unseemly is it for my sex,
My discipline of arms and chivalry.
My nature, and the terror of my name,
To harbour thoughts effeminate and faint I
Save only that in beauty's just applause,
With whose instinct the soul of man is touched ;
And every warrior that is rapt with love 180

Of fame, of valour, and of victory.
Most needs have beauty beat on his conceits :
I thus conceiving and subduing both
That which hath stoopt the chiefest of the gods,^

^ A very corrupt passage. I have not been able to improve upon
Dice's emendations (which had been partly anticipated by Broughton).
The 8va reads :—

'* That which hath stopt the tempest of the gods.

And martch in cottages of strowed weeds."

The 4to. makes matters worse by reading mareh in coatehes,
Broogbton suggested stoop* d for slept and masked for martch^ but left

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92 The First Part of [act v.

Even from the fiery-spangled veil of Heaven,

To feel the lowly warmth of shepherds' flames.

And mask in cottages of strowM reeds.

Shall give the world to note for all my birth,

That virtue solely is the sum of glory,

And fashions men with true nobility. — 190

Who's within there?

Enter two or thru Attendant^,

Hath Bajazeth been fed to-day?

Attend I, my lord.

Tamb. Bring him forth ; and let us know if the town

be ransacked.

\Exeunt Attendants,

Enter Techelles, Theridamas, Usumcasane, and
others.

Tech. The town is ours, my lord, and fresh supply
Of conquest and of spoil is offered us.

Tamb, That's well, Techelles ; what's the news ?

Tech, The Soldan and the Arabian king together,
March ^ on us with such eager violence, 200

As if there were no way* but one with us.

tempest, I should like to keep the word weeds (remembering the line
in L 2, "Jove sometimes masked in a shepherd's weed) ; but Broughton's
proposed reading, *' oottagera' off-strowed weeds,'* is ridiculous.
Old copies, •Mil."

> So 4to.— Sva *'martdit on wiUi us."

* /.«. , as if we must die. The reader will remember Mistress QuicUy's
wotds, — **For after I saw him fumble with the sheets and plaj with
flowers and smile upon his finges' ends, I knew there was but ame way,"^

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scBNsi.] Tamburlaine the Great. 93

Tomb. No more there is not, I warrant thee, Techelles.
They bring in Bajazeth and Zabina.

Ther, We know the victory is ours, my lord ;
But let us save the reverend Soldan's life,
For fair 2^nocrate that so laments his state.

Tamb. That will we chiefly see unto, Theridamas,
For sweet Zenocrate, whose worthiness
Deserves a conquest over every heart.
And now, my footstool, if I lose the fleld^
You hope of liberty and restitution ? aio

Here let him stay, my masters, from the tents,
Till we have made us ready for the field.
Pray for us, Bajazeth ; we are going.

\Exeunt Tamburlaine, Techelles, Usumcasane,
and Persians.

Baj, Go, never to return with victory.
Millions of men encompass thee about,
And gore thy body with as many wounds !
Sharp, forkfed arrows light upon thy horse !
Furies from the black Cocytus lake,
Break up the earth, and with their firebrands,
Enforce thee run upon the baneful pikes ! 220

Volleys of shot pierce through thy charmfed skin.
And every bullet dipt in poisoned drugs !
Or, roaring cannons sever all thy joints.
Making thee mount as high as eagles soar !

Zab. Let all the swords and lances in the field
Stick in his breast as in their proper rooms !
At every pore let blood come dropping forth.

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94 The First Part of [act v.

That lingering pains may noassacre his heart,
And madness send his damnM soul to hell 1

Baj. Ah, fair Zabina ! we may curse his power ; 230
The heavens may frown, the earth for anger quake :
But such a star hath influence in his sword.
As rules the skies and countermands the gods
More than Cimmerian St3rx or Destiny ;
And then shall we in this detested guise,
With shame, with hunger, and with horror stay,^
Griping our bowels with retorqufed* thoughts,
And have no hope to end our ecstasies.

Zab. Then is there left no Mahomet, no God,
No fiend, no fortune, nor no hope of end 240

To our infkmous monstrous slaveries.
Gape earth, and let the fiends infernal view
A hell as hopeless and as full of fear
As are the blasted banks of Erebus,
Where shaking ghosts with ever-howling groans
Hover about the ugly ferryman,
To get a passage to Elysium 1 '
Why should we live ? O, wretches, beggars, slaves !
Why live we, Bajazeth, and build up nests
So high within the region of the air 250

By living long in this oppression.
That all the world will see and laugh to scorn
The former triumphs of our mightiness
In this obscure infernal servitude P

* 8vo. "aic"— 4to. "aye."

> /.«., "bent back in r^ectioos on our former happiness." — Dyce.

s Old copies "Elisian."

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SCENE 1.1 Tamburlaine the Great. 95

Baj, O life, more loathsome to my vexbd thoughts
Than noisome parbreak^ of the Stygian snakes,
Which fills the nooks of hell with standing air,
Infecting all the ghosts with cureless griefs !
O dreary engines of my loathed sight,
That see my crown, my honour, and my name 260

Thrust under yoke and thraldom of a thief.
Why feed ye still on day's accursM beams
And sink not quite into my tortured soul ?
You see my wife, my queen, and emperess,
Brought up and propped by the hand of fame,
Queen of fifteen contributory queens.
Now thrown to rooms of black abjection,*
Smeared with blots of basest drudgery.
And villainess ^ to shame, disdain, and misery.
Accursed Bajazeth, whose words of ruth, 270

(That would with pity cheer Zabina's heart.
And make our souls resolve in ceaseless tears ;)
Sharp hunger bites upon, and gripes the root,
From whence the issues of my thoughts do break !

poor Zabina ! O my queen ! my queen !
Fetch me some water for my burning breast,
To cool and comfort me with longer date.
That in the shortened sequel of my life

1 may pour forth my soul into thine arms

With words of love, whose moaning intercourse 280

1 Vomit.

> Old copies "objection."

« Slave. CI ill. s, 1. 38 :— " Is far from villamy or senritude."

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96 The First Part of [act v.

Hath hitherto been stayed with wrath and hate
Of our expressless bann'd inflictions.

Zab, Sweet Bajazeth, I will prolong thy life.
As long as any blood or spark of breath
Can quench or cool the torments of my grief.

\Shegoe5 out,

Baj. Now, Bajazethy abridge thy baneful days.
And beat thy brains out of thy conquered head,
Since other means are all forbidden me,
That may be ministers of my decay.
O, highest lamp of ever4iTing Jove, 290

AccursM day ! infected with my griefs,
Hide now thy stainfed face in endless night,
And shut the windows of the lightsome Heavens !
Let ugly Darkness with her rusty coach,
Engirt with tempests, wrapt in pitchy clouds,
Smother the earth with never-fading mists I
And let her horses from their nostrils breathe
Rebellious winds and dreadful thunder-claps !
That in this terror Tamburlaine may live,
And my pined soul, resolved in liquid air, 300

May still excruciate his tormented thoughts !
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold
Pierce through the centre of my withered heart.
And make a passage for my loathM life !

{He brains himself against the cage.

Re-enter Zabina.

Zab, What do mine eyes behold ? my husband dead !
His skull all riven in twain ! his brains dashed out, —

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SCENE 11.] Tamburlaine the Great. 97

The brains of Bajazeth, my lord and sovereign :
O Bajazeth, my husband and my lord !
O Bajazeth ! O Turk ! O Emperor I 310

Give him his liquor ? not I. Bring milk and fire, and
my blood I bring him again. — Tear me in pieces —
give^ me the sword with a ball of wild-fire upon it. —
Down with him! Down with him! — Go to my child!
Away ! Away ! Away \ — Ah, save that infant ! save him,
save him ! — I, even I, speak to her. — The sun was
down — streamers white, red, black — here, here, here 1 —
Fling the meat in his figure — ^Tamburlaine. — Tambur-
laine! — Let the soldiers be buried. — Hell! Death,
Tamburlaine, Hell ! — Make ready my coach,* my chair,
my jewels. — I come ! I come 1 I come ! 321

[She runs against the cage and brains herself.

Enter Zenocrate with Anippe.

Zeno. Wretched Zenocrate 1 that liv'st to see
Damascus walls dyed with Eygptians'^ blood.
Thy father's subjects and thy countrymen ;
Thy streets strowed with dissevered joints of men
And wounded bodies gasping yet for life :
But most accurst, to see the sun-bright troop
Of heavenly virgins and unspotted maids,
(Whose looks might make the angry god of arms
To break his sword and mildly treat of love) 330

1 So4to.— 8Ta "«wfgive."

* So the crazed Ophelia,—" Come, my coach," SiQ,^HaMle/, iv. 5.
s So 4to.— 8Ya " Egiptian.''
VOL. I. G

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98 The First Part of [act v.

On horsemen's lances to be hoisted up

And guildessly endure a cruel death :

For every fell and stout Tartarian steed,

That stampt on others with their thundering hoofs,

When all their riders charged their quivering spears,

Began to check the ground and rein themselves

Gazing upon the beauty of their looks. —

O Tamburlaine 1 wert thou the cause of this

That term'st Zenocrate thy dearest love ?

Whose lives were dearer to Zenocrate 340

Than her own life, or aught save thine own love.

But see another bloody spectacle !

Ah, wretched eyes, the enemies of my heart,

How are ye glutted with these grievous objects,

And tell my soul more tales of bleeding ruth !

See, see, Anippe, if they breathe or na

Anippe, No breath, nor sense, nor motion in them
both;
Ah, madam ! this their slavery hath enforced.
And ruthless cruelty of Tamburlaine.

Zeno* Earth, cast up fountains from thy entrails, 350
And wet thy cheeks for their untimely deaths !
Shake with their weight in sign of fear and grief!
Blush, Heaven, that gave them honour at their birth
And let them die a death so barbarous !
Those that are proud of fickle empery
And place their chiefest good in earthly pomp.
Behold the Turk and his great Emperess !
Ah, Tamburlaine 1 my love ! sweet Tamburlaine !
That fight*st for sceptres and for slippery crowns,

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scENR II.1 Tamburlaine the Great. 99

Behold the Turk and his great Emperess ! 360

Thou, that in conduct of thy happy stars

Sleep'st every night with conquests on thy brows^

And yet would'st shun the wavering turns of war,

In fear and feeling of the like distress

Behold the Turk and his great Emperess !

Ah, mighty Jove and holy Mahomet,

Pardon my love ! — O, pardon his contempt

Of earthly fortune and respect of pity,

And let not conquest, ruthlessly pursued.

Be equally against his life incensed 370

In this great Turk and hapless Emperess !

And pardon me that was not moved with ruth

To see them live so long in misery !

Ah, what may chance to thee, Zenocrate ?

Anippe. Madam, content yourself, and be resolved
Your love hath Fortune so at his command.
That she shall stay and turn her wheel no more,
As long as life maintains his mighty arm
That fights for honour to adorn your head

Enter Philemus, a Messenger.
Zmo, What other heavy news now brings Philemus ? 380
Phil, Madam, your father, and the Arabian king,

The first affecter of your excellence.

Comes now, as Turnus 'gainst ^neas did,

AnnM with lance into the Egyptian fields,

Ready for battle 'gainst my lord, the king.

Zeno. Now shame and duty, love and fear present

A thousand sorrows to my martyred souL

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lOO The First Part of [act v.

Whom should I wish the fatal victory

When my poor pleasures are divided thus

And racked by duty from my cursM heart ? 390

My father and my first-betrothfed love

Must fight against my life and present love ;

Wherein the change I use condemns my faith,

And makes my deeds infkmous through the world :

But as the gods, to end the Trojans' toil

Prevented Turnus of Lavinia

And fatally enriched iEneas' love,

So for a final ^ issue to my griefs,

To pacify my country and my love

Must Tamburlaine by their resistless pow'rs 400

With virtue of a gentle victory

Conclude a league of honour to my hope ;

Then, as the Powers divine have pre-ordained,

With happy safety of my father's life

Send like defence of fair Arabia.

\They sound to the batiU : and Tamburlaine enjoys

the victory ; after, the King of Arabia enters

wounded,
K. of Arab. What cursed power guides the murdering
hands
Of this inf kmous tyrant's soldiers.
That no escape may save their enemies,
Nor fortune keep themselves from victory ?
Lie down, Arabia, wounded to the death, 410

And let Zenocrate's fair eyes behold

» So4ta— dTo. ••smalL"

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SCENE II.] Tamhurlaine the Great. loi

That, as for her thou bear'st these wretched arms,
Even so for her thou diest in these arms,
Leaving thy ^ blood for witness of thy love.

21eno. Too dear a witness for such love, my lord 1
Behold Zenocrate I the cursed object,
Whose fortunes never mastered her griefs ;
Behold her wounded, in conceit, for thee,
As much as thy fair body is for me.

JT. of Arab. Then shall I die with full, contented

heart, 420

Having beheld divine Zenocrate,
Whose sight with joy would take away my life
As now it bringeth sweetness to my wound.
If I had not been wounded as I am.
Ah ! that the deadly pangs, I suffer now,
Would lend an hour's licence to my tongue,
To make discourse of some sweet accidents
Have chanced thy merits in this worthless bondage ;
And that I might be privy to the state
Of thy deserved contentment, and thy love ; 430

But, making now a virtue of thy sight.
To drive all sorrow from my fainting soul,
Since death denies me farther cause of joy,
Deprived of care, my heart with comfort dies.
Since thy desired hand shall close mine eyes.

\Ht dies.

1 So4ta^8vo. "my."

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1 02 The First Part of [act v.

Enter Tamburlaine, leading the Soldan, Techelles,
Theridamas, Usumcasane, vfith others,

Tamb, Come, happy father of Zenocrate,
A title higher than thy Soldan's name.
Though my right hand has thus enthrall^ thee,
Thy princely daughter here shall set thee free ;
She that hath calmed the fury of my sword, 440

Which had ere this been bathed in streams of blood
As vast and deep as Euphrates or Nile.

Zeno, O sight thrice welcome to my joyful soul,
To see the King, my father, issue safe
From dangerous battle of my conquering love !

Sold. Well met, my only dear Zenocrate,
Though with the loss of Egypt and my crowa

Tamb. *Twas I, my lord, that got the victory,
And therefore grieve not at your overthrow,
Since I shall render all into your hands, 450

And add more strength to your dominions
Than ever yet confirmed the Egyptian crown.
The Gk)d of war resigns his room to me,
Meaning to make me general of the world :
Jove, viewing me in arms, looks pale and wan,
Fearing my power should pull him from his throne.
Where'er I come the Fatal Sisters sweat,
And grisly Death, by running to and fro.
To do their ceaseless homage to my sword ;
And here in Afric, where it seldom rains, 460

Since I arrived with my triumphant host,
Have swelling clouds, drawn from wide-gasping wounds,
Been oft resolved in bloody purple showers,

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SCENE II.] Tamhurlaine the Great. 103

A meteor that might terrify the earth,

And make it quake at every drop it drinks.

Millions of souls sit on the banks of Styx

Waiting the back return of Charon's boat ;

Hell and Elysium^ swarm with ghosts of men.

That I have sent from sundry foughten fields.

To spread my fame through hell and up to heaven. 47^

And see, my lord, a sight of strange import.

Emperors and Kings lie breathless at my feet :

The Turk and his great Empress, as it seems,

Left to themselves while we were at the fight.

Have desperately despatched their slavish lives :

With them Arabia, too, hath left his life :

All sights of power to grace my victory ;

And such are objects fit for Tamburlaine ;

Wherein, as in a mirror, may be seen

His honour, that consists in shedding blood, 480

When men presume to manage arms with him.

Sold. Mighty hath God and Mahomet made thy hand,
Renowmbd Tamburlaine 1 to whom all kings
Of force must yield their crowns and emperies ;
And I am pleased with this my overthrow,
If, as beseems a person of thy state.
Thou hast with honour used Zenocrate.

Tamb, Her state and person want no pomp, you see ;
And for all blot of foul inchastity
I record Heaven her heavenly self is clear : 490

Then let me find no farther time to grace

1 Old copies "EUsian."

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1 04 The First Part of [act v.

Her princely temples with the Persian crown.
But here these kings that on my fortunes wait,
And have been crowned for proved worthiness,
Even by this hand that shall establish them.
Shall now, adjoining all their hands with mine,
Invest her here my Queen of Persia,
What saith the noble Soldan and Zenocrate ?

Sold, I yield with thanks and protestations
Of endless honour to thee for her love. 500

Tamb, Then doubt I not but fair Zenocrate
Will soon consent to satisfy us both.

Zeno, Else ^ should I much forget myself, my lord.

Ther, Then let us set the crown upon her head,
That long hath lingered for so high a seat.

Tech. My hand is ready to perform the deed \
For now her marriage-time shall work us rest

Usum, And here's the crown, my lord ; help set it on.-

Tamb.^TYitn sit thou down, divine Zenocrate ;
And here we crown thee Queen of Persia, 510

And all the kingdoms and dominions
That late the power of Tamburlaine subdued.
As Juno, when the giants were suppressed.
That darted mountains at her brother Jove,
So looks my love, shadowing in her brows
Triumphs and trophies for my victories ;
Or, as Latona's daughters, bent to arms.
Adding more courage to my conquering mind.

* So4to.— 8va ••then."
> So 4ta~Oinitted in 8vo.

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SCENE 11.] Tamburlaine the Great. 105

To gratify the sweet Zenocrate,

Egyptians, Moors, and men of Asia, 520

From Barbary unto the western India,

Shall pay a yearly tribute to thy sire :

And from the bounds of Afric to the banks

Of Ganges shall his mighty arm extend.

And now, my lords and loving followers.

That purchased kingdoms by your martial deeds,

Cast off your armour, put on scarlet robes,

Mount up your royal places of estate,

Environed with troops of noblemen.

And there make laws to rule your provinces. 530

Hang up your weapons on Alcides' post,^

For Tamburlaine takes truce with all the world.

Thy first-betrothfed love, Arabia,

Shall we with honour, as beseems, entomb

With this great Turk and his fair Emperess.

Then, after all these solemn exequies,

We will our rites * of marriage solemnise.

^ Dyce reads " post[s]," and Cunningham follows. I prefer the read-
ing of the old copies, for I suspect that Marlowe had in his remem-
brance Horace's Epistles, i. i (11. 4, 5), —

^'Veianiusarmis
Herculis ad postern fizis latet abditus agro."

It was customary among the ancients on retiring from a profession to
dedicate the implements of it to the patron deity.

' Old copies read "celebrated rites." It is one of the numerous
cases where a marginal note has been imported into the text. The
author being doubtful whether to say " our rites of marriage celebrate "
or "our rites of marriage solemnise," the compositor promptly printed
" our celebrated rites of marriage solemnise."

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TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.

PART THE SECOND.

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TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT,
part tbe SeconD.

PROLOGUE.

The general welcomes Tamburlaine received,
When he arrivM last upon the ^ stage.
Hath made our poet pen his Second Part,
Where death cuts off the prepress of his pomp,
And murderous fates throw all his triumphs down.
But what became of fair Zenocrate,
And with how many cities* sacrifice
He celebrated her sad ' funeral.
Himself in presence shall unfold at large.

1 So4to.— 8vo. **our."
3 Old copies "said."

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PERSONS REPRESENTED.

J/is thr€€ Sons,

Tamburlaine.
Calyphas,
Amyras, I
Celebinus,

S^d'aS^as, ^^ ^--^^' ^-^^ ^/ ^-^ ^'•^^' ^

USUMCASANE, ) J^OTOCCO.

Orcanes, KingofNaUUa.

King ^Jerusalem.

King of Trebizond.

Kingof%f6si,

Gazellus, Viceroy of Byron,

Uribassa.

SiGisMUND, King of Hungary,

BaldwIn,"^ ! I^ of Buda«ui Bohemia.

Perdicas, Servant to Calyphas.

Governor of Babylon ,

Maximus.

Callapine, Son ^Bajazeth.

Almeda, his Keeper,

King <^ AnuLsia.

Physician.

Captain ^/Balsera*

His Son.

Another Captain.

Lords, Citizens, Soldiers, &c

Zenocrate, Tamburlaine's Queen,
Olympia, Wife of the Captain if Balsera,
Turkish Concubines.

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TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

Orcanes, King of Natolia, Gazellus, Viceroy of Byron^
Uribassa,^ and their Train, with drums and trumpets.

Ore Egregious viceroys of these eastern parts,

Placed by the issue of great Bajazeth,

And sacred lord, the mighty Callapine,

Who lives in Egypt, prisoner to that slave

Which kept his father in an iron cage ; —

Now have we marched from fair Natolia

Two hundred leagues, and on Danubius' banks

Our warlike host, in complete armour, rest.

Where Sigismund, the king of Hungary,

Should meet our person to conclude a truce. lo

What ? Shall we parle with the Christian ?

Or cross the stream, and meet him in the field ?

1 Old copies " Upibassa."

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1 1 2 The Second Part of [act i.

Gaz, King of Natolia, let us treat of peace ;
We are all glutted with the Christians' blood,
And have a greater foe to fight against, —
Proud Tamburlaine, that, now in Asia,
Near Guyron's head doth set his conq'ring feet.
And means to fire Turkey as he goes.
'Gainst him, my lord, you must address your power.

Uri. Besides, King Sigismund hath brought from
Christendom, 20

More than his camp of stout Hungarians, —
Sclavonians, Almain, Rutters,^ Muffes, and Danes,
That with the halbert, lance, and murdering axe,
Will hazard that we might with surety hold.

Ore. Though from the shortest northern parallel.
Vast Grantland, compassed with the Frozen Sea,
(Inhabited with tall and stiurdy men.
Giants as big as hugy Polypheme,)
Millions of soldiers cut the arctick line,
Bringing the strength of Europe to these arms, 30

Our Turkey blades shall glide through all their throats,
And make this champion ^ mead a bloody fen.
Danubius' stream, that runs to Trebizon,
Shall carry, wrapt within his scarlet waves,
As martial presents to our friends at home,
The slaughtered bodies of these Christians.

1 Old copies give "Almains, Rutten," here and in L 58; but in
Fausius^ i. x, we find —

" Like Almain rutters with thdr hoisemen's staves.**
Rtttten = troopers (Germ. Jieuter),

* Champain.

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SCENE I.] Tamburlaine the Great. 113

The Terrene Main, wherein Danubius falls,^

Shall, by this battle, be the Bloody Sea.

The wandering sailors of proud Italy

Shall meet those Christians, fleeting with the tide, 40

Beating in heaps against their Argosies,

And make fair Europe, mounted on her bull,

Trapped with the wealth and riches of the world.

Alight, and wear a woful mourning weed.

Gaz. Yet, stout Orcanes,^ Prorex of the world.
Since Tamburlaine hath mustered all his men,
Marching from Cairon northward with his camp.
To Alexandria, and the frontier towns.
Meaning to make a conquest of our land,
Tis requisite to parle for a peace 50

With Sigismund, the king of Hungary,
And save our forces for the hot assaults
Proud Tamburlaine intends Natolia.

Ore Viceroy of Byron, wisely hast thou said.
My realm, the centre of our empery,
Once lost, all Turkey would be overthrown,
And for that cause the Christians shall have peace.
Sclavonians, Almain, Rutters, Muffes, and Danes,
Fear not Orcanes, but great Tamburlaine ;
Nor he, but fortune, that hath made him great 60

We have revolted Grecians, Albanese,
Sicilians, Jews, Arabians, Turks, and Moors,
Natolians, Syrians, black Egyptians,

^ Marlowe's notions of geography are as vague as iEschylus's.

* Omitted in old copies.
VOL. I. H

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1 1 4 The Second Part of [act i.

lUyrians,^ Thracians, and Bithynians,

Enough to swallow forceless Sigismund,

Yet scarce enough to encounter Tamburlaine.

He brings a world of people to the field,

From Scythia to the oriental plage

Of India, where raging Lantchidol ^

Beats on the regions with his boisterous blows, 70

That never seaman yet discovered.

All Asia is in arms with Tamburlaine,

Even from the midst of fiery Cancer's tropick,

To Amazonia under Capricorn ;

And thence as far as Archipelago,

All Afric is in arms with Tamburlaine ;

Therefore, viceroy, the Christians must have peace.

£;i/^r Sigismund, Frederick, Baldwin, and their Trtun^
with drums and trumpets,

Sig. Orcanes, (as our legates promised thee,)
We, with our peers, have crossed Danubius' stream.
To treat of friendly peace or deadly war. 80

Take which thou wilt, for as the Romans used,
I here present thee with a naked sword ;
Wilt thou have war, then shake this blade at me ;
If peace, restore it to my hands again,
And I will sheath it, to confirm the same.

Ore Stay, Sigismund ! forget'st thou I am he
That with the cannon shook Vienna wall,

» Svo. " lllicians."

s ** Lantchidol is that part of the Indian Ocean which lies between
Java and New Holland."— ^roK^fAiim.

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SCENE I.] Tamburlaine the Great. 115

And made it dance upon the continent.

As when the massy substance of the earth

Quiver [s] about the axle-tree of heaven ? 90

Forget'st thou that I sent a shower of darts,

Mingled with powdered shot and feathered steel,

So thick upon the blink-eyed burghers' heads.

That thou thyself then County Palatine,

The King of Boheme, and the Austrick Duke,

Sent heralds out, which basely on their knees

In all your names desired a truce of me?

Forgef st thou, that to have me raise my siege,

Waggons of gold were set before my tents,

Stampt with the princely fowl, that in her wings, 100

Carries the fearful thunderbolts of Jove ?

How canst thou think of this, and ofifer war?

!^g. Vienna was besieged, and I was there,
Then County Palatine, but now a king,
And what we did was in extremity.
But now, Orcanes, view my royal host,
That hides these plains, and seems as vast and

wide.
As doth the desert of Arabia
To those that stand on Badgeth's ^ lofty tower ;
Or as the ocean, to the traveller no

That rests upon the snowy Apennines ;
And tell me whether I should stoop so low,
As treat of peace with the Natolian king.

Gaz, Kings of Natolia and of Hungary,
We came from Turkey to confirm a league,

^ Le, Bagdad's.

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1 16 The Second Part of [act i.

And not to dare each other to the field
A friendly parle might become you both.

Fred. And we from Europe, to the same intent,
Which if your general refuse or scorn,
Our tents are pitched, our men stand in array, 120

Ready to charge you ere you stir your feet

Ore, So prest ^ are we ; but yet, if Sigismund
Speak as a friend, and stand not upon terms,
Here is his sword, — let peace be ratified
On these conditions,' specified before,
Drawn with advice of our ambassadors.

Sig. Then here I sheathe it, and give thee my hand.
Never to draw it out, or manage arms
Against thyself or thy confederates,
But whilst I live will be at truce with thee. 130

Ore, But, Sigismund, confirm it with an oath.
And swear in sight of heaven and by thy Christ

Sig, By him that made the world and saved my soul,
The son of God and issue of a maid, .
Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly protest
And vow to keep this peace inviolable.

Ore, By sacred Mahomet, the firiend of God,
Whose holy Alcoran remains with us,
Whose glorious body, when he left the world.
Closed in a coffin mounted up the air, i^

And hung on stately Mecca's temple-roof,
I swear to keep this truce inviolable ;
Of whose conditions and our solemn oaths,

1 Ready.
5 So4to.— 8vo. *'oonditioD."

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SCENE II. ] Tamburlaine the Great. 117

Signed with our hands, each shall retain a scroll

As memorable witness of our league.

Now, Sigismund, if any Christian king

Encroach upon the confines of thy realm,

Send word, Orcanes of Natolia

Confirmed ^ this league beyond Danubius' stream.

And they will, trembling, sound a quick retreat ; 150

So am I felared among all nations.

Sig. If any heathen potentate or king
Invade Natolia, Sigismund will send
A hundred thousand horse trained to the war,
And backed by stout landers of Germany,
The strength and sinews of the Imperial seat.

Ore, I thank thee, Sigismund ; but, when I war.
All Asia Minor, Africa, and Greece,
Follow my standard and my thundering drums.
Come, let us go and banquet in our tents ; 160

I will despatch chief of my army hence
To fair Natolia and to Trebison,
To stay my coming 'gainst proud Tamburlaine.
Friend Sigismund, and peers of Hungary,
Come, banquet and carouse with us a while,
And then depart we to our territories. \Extunt,

SCENE 11.
Callapine with Alm eda, Ms Keeper^ discovered.
Call. Sweet Almeda, pity the ruthful plight

1 So 4ta— 8vo. " confinne.**

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1 1 8 The Second Part of [act i.

Of Callapine, the son of Bajazeth,

Bom to be monarch of the western world,

Yet here detained by cruel Tamburlaine.

Aim. My lord, I pity it, and with all my heart
Wish you release ; but he whose wrath is death.
My sovereign lord, renowmbd Tamburlaine,
Forbids you farther liberty than this.

Call, Ah, were I now but half so eloquent
To paint in words what I'll perform in deeds, lo

I know thou would'st depart from hence with me.

Aim. Not for all Afric : therefore move me not

Call Yet hear me speak, my gentle Almeda

Aim, No speech to that end, by your favour, sir.

Call By Cairo * runs

Aim. No talk of running, I tell you, sir.

Call A little farther, gentle Almeda.

Aim. Well, sir, what of this ?

C(UL By Cairo runs to Alexandria bay
Darote's streams, wherein at* anchor lies 20

A Turkish galley of my royal fleet,
Waiting my coming to the river side,
Hoping by some means I shall be released,
Which, when I come aboard, will hoist up sail,
And soon put forth into the Terrene sea,
Where, 'twixt the isles of Cyprus and of Crete,
We quickly may in Turkish seas arrive.
Then shalt thou see a hundred kings and more,
Upon their knees, all bid me welcome home.

^ Old copies, " Caiio " (which I take to be a misprint, not a recognised
form like Catron in L 47). > So 4to.— 8va "an.**

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SCENE n.] Tamburlaine the Great. 1 1 9

Amongst so many crowns of burnished gold, 30

Choose which thou wilt, all are at thy command ;

A thousand galleys, manned with Christian slaves,

I freely give thee, which shall cut the straits.

And bring armados from the coasts of Spain

Fraughted with gold of rich America ;

The Grecian virgins shall attend on thee,

Skilful in music and in amorous lays,

As fisdr as was Pygmalion's ivory girl

Or lovely lo metamorphosed.

With naked negroes shall thy coach be drawn, 40

And as thou rid'st in triumph through the streets

The pavement underneath thy chariot wheels

With Turkey carpets shall be covered.

And doth of Arras hung about the walls,

Fit objects for thy princely eye to pierce.

A hundred bassoes, clothed in crimson silk,

Shall ride before thee on Barbarian steeds ;

And when thou goest, a golden canopy

Enchased with precious stones, which shine as

bright
As that fair veil that covers aU the world, 50

When Phoebus, leaping from the hemisphere,
Descendeth downward to the antipodes, —
And more than this — for all I cannot tell.

Aim, How far hence lies the galley, say you ?

Call. Sweet Almeda, scarce half a league from
hence.

Aim. But need ^ we not be spied going aboard ?

1 l,e. can we escape being spied?

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1 20 714^ Second Part of [act i.

CalL Betwixt the hollow hanging of a hill,
And crookM bending of a craggy rock,
The saib wrapt up, the mast and tacklings down,
She lies so close that none can find her out 60

Aim. I like that well : but tell me, my lord, if I should
let you go, would you be as good as your word ? Shall I
be made a king for my labour?

CalL As I am Callapine the emperor,
And by the hand of Mahomet I swear
Thou shalt be crowned a king, and be my mate.

Aim, Then hear I swear, as I am Almeda
Your keepep under Tamburlaine the Great,
(For that's the style and title I have yet,)
Although he sent a thousand armM men 7o

To intercept this haughty enterprise.
Yet would I venture to conduct your grace,
And die before I brought you back again.

CalL Thanks, gentle Almeda ; then let us haste,
Lest time be past, and lingering let us both.

Aim. When you will, my lord ; I am ready.

CalL Even straight j and farewell, cursM Tamburlaine.
Now go I to revenge my father's death. \Exmnt

SCENE III.

Enter Tamburlaine, with Zenocrate and his three Sms^
Calyphas, Amyras, and Celebinus, with drums
and trumpets.

Tamb. Now, bright Zenocrate, the world's fair eye.

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 12 1

Whose beams illuminate the lamps of heaven,
Whose cheerful looks do dear the cloudy air,
And clothe it in a crystal livery ;
Now rest thee here on fair Larissa plains,
Where Egypt and the Turkish empire part
Between thy sons, that shall be emperors,
And every one commander of a world.

Zeno. Sweet Tamburlaine, when wilt thou leave these
arms.
And save thy sacred person tee from scathe, 10

And dangerous chances of the wrathful war ?

Tamb, When heaven shall cease to move on both the
poles,
And when the ground, whereon my soldiers march,
Shall rise aloft and touch the horned moon.
And not before, my sweet Zenocrate.
Sit up, and rest thee like a lovely queen ;
So, now she sits in pomp and majesty,
When these, my sons, more precious in mine eyes,
Than all the wealthy kingdoms I subdued,
Placed by her side, look on their mother's face : 20

But yet methinks their looks are amorous,^
Not martial as the sons of Tamburlaine :
Water and air, being symbolised in one,
Argue their want of courage and of wit ;
Their hair as white as milk and soft as down,
(Which should be like the quills of porcupines
As black as jet and hard as iron or steel)

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122 The Second Part of [act l

Bewrays they are too dainty for the wars ;

Their fingers made to quaver on a lute,

Their arms to hang about a lady's neck, 3<>

Would make me think them bastards not my sons,

But that I know they issued from thy womb

That never looked on man but Tamburlaine.

Zeno. My gracious lord, they have their mother's looks,
But, when they list their conquering father's heart
This lovely boy, the youngest of the three,
Not long ago bestrid a Scythian steed,
Trotting the ring, and tilting at a glove,
Which when he tainted ^ with his slender rod,*]
He reigned him straight and made him so curvet, 40
As I cried out for fear he should have fallen.

Tamb, Well done, my boy, thou shalt have shield and
lance,
Armour of proof, horse, helm, and curtle axe.
And I will teach thee how to charge thy foe.
And harmless run among the deadly pikes.
If thou wilt love the wars and follow me,
Thou shalt be made a king and reign with me.
Keeping in iron cages emperors.

1 '* This word is the property of the tilt-yaxxl and relates to the man-
agement of the spear or staff. It occurs in Massinger's Parliawunt of
^^ove (iv. 3),—

' Do not fear, I have

A staff to taint and bravely.* ^—Brou^tUm,
s Broughton compares Faerie Queene^ iv. 3 (46) :~
*' At last arriving at the listes side
She with her rod did gently smite the rail."

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SCENE in.1 Tamburlaine the Great. 1 23

If thou exceed thy elder brothers' worth

And shine in cbmplete virtue more than they, 5°

Thou shalt be king before them, and thy seed

Shall issue crownfed from their mother's womb.

Cd. Yes, father : you shall see me, if I live.
Have under me as many kings as you.
And march with such a multitude of men,
As all the world shall tremble at their view.

Tamb. These words assure me, boy, thou art my son.
When I am old and cannot manage arms,
Be thou the scourge and terror of the world.

Amy. Why may not I, my lord, as well as he, 60

Be termed the scourge and terror of the world ?

Tatnb, Be all a scourge and terror to the world,
Or else you are not sons of Tamburlaine.

Cal. But while my brothers follow arms, my lord.
Let me accompany my gracious mother ;
They are enough to conquer all the world,
And you have won enough for me to keep.

Tctmb. Bastardly boy, sprung from some coward's loins.
And not the issue of great Tamburlaine ;
Of all the provinces I have subdued, 70

Thou shalt not have a foot unless thou bear
A mind courageous and invincible :
For he shall wear the crown of Persia
Whose head hath deepest scars, whose breast most

wounds,
Which being wroth sends lightning from his eyes,
And in the furrows of his frowning brows
Harbours revenge, war, death, and cruelty ;

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124 The Second Part of [act i.

For in a field, whose superficies ^

Is covered with a liquid purple veil

And sprinkled with the brains of slaughtered men, 80

My royal chair of state shall be advanced ;

And he that means to place himself therein,

Must arm^d wade up to the chin in blood.

Zeno. My lord, such speeches to our princely sons
Dismay their minds before they come to prove
The wounding troubles angry war affords.

CeL No, madam, these are speeches fit for us.
For if his chair were in a sea of blood
I would prepare a ship and sail to it,
Ere I would lose the title of a king. 90

Amy, And I would strive to swim through* pools of
blood,
Or make a bridge of murdered carcases,
Whose arches should be framed with bones of Turks,
Ere I would lose the title of a king.

Tamb. Well, lovely boys, ye shall be emperors both,
Stretching your conquering arms from East to West ;
And, sirrah, if you mean to wear a crown.
When we shall meet the Turkish deputy
And all his viceroys, snatch it firom his head,
And cleave his pericranium with thy sword. ia>

1 " Old eds. ' superfluities.* In iii. 4 we have, ' the concave superficies
of Jove's vast palace,*"— Z>r«.
» So4to.— Bvo. "thorow.**

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SCENE iiL] Tamburlaine the Great. 125

Col, If any man will hold him, I will strike
And cleave him to the channel ^ with my sword.

Tamh. Hold him, and cleave him too, or Fll cleave thee,
For we will march against them presently.
Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane
Promised to meet me on Larissa plains
With hosts apiece against this Turkish crew ;
For I have sworn by sacred Mahomet
To make it parcel of my empery ;
The trumpets sound, Zenocrate ; they come. "o

Enter Theridamas and his Train^ with drums and
trumpets,

Tanib, Welcome, Theridamas, king of Argier.

T?ier. My lord, the great and mighty Tamburlaine, —
Arch-monarch of the world, I offer here
My crown, myself, and all the power I have.
In all affection at thy kingly feet

Tamb. Thanks, good Theridamas.

Ther, Under my colours march ten thousand Greeks;
And of ArgiePs and Afric's frontier towns
Twice twenty thousand valiant men at arms,
All which have sworn to sack Natolia. 120

Five hundred brigantines are under sail.
Meet for your service on the sea, my lord,
That launching from Argier to Tripoli,
Will quickly ride before Natolia,
And batter down the castles on the shore.

Tamb. Well said, Argier ; receive thy crown again.

1 CoHar-bone.

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1 26 The Second Part of [act i.

Enter Techelles and Usuhcasane together.

Tamb. Kings of Moroccus and of Fez, welcome.

UsuM, Magnificent and peerless Tamburlaine !
I and my neighbour king of Fez have brought
To aid thee in this Turkish expedition, 130

A hundred thousand expert soldiers :
From Azamor to Tunis near the sea
Is Barbary unpeopled for thy sake,
And all the men in armour under me.
Which with my crown I gladly offer thee.

Tatfib, Thanks, king of Moroccus, take your crown
agaia

Tech, And, mighty Tamburlaine, our earthly

god.
Whose looks make this inferior world to quake,
I here present thee with the crown of Fez,
And with an host of Moors trained to the war, 140

Whose coal-black faces make their foes retire,
And quake for fear, as if infernal Jove
Meaning to aid thee ^ in these ^ Turkish arms,
Should pierce the black circumference of hell
With ugly Furies bearing fiery flags,
And millions of his strong tormenting spirits.
From strong Tesella unto Biledull
All Barbary is unpeopled for thy sake.

Tait^, Thanks, king of Fez; take here thy crown

again.

1 Old copies "them."
«So4to.— 8vo. "this."

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SCENE III.] Tamburlatne the Great. 127

Your presence, loving friends, and fellow kings, 150

Makes me to surfeit in conceiving joy.

If all the crystal gates of Jove's high court

Were opened wide, and I might enter in

To see the state and majesty of Heaven,

It could not more delight me than your sight

Now will we banquet on these plains awhile.

And after march to Turkey with our camp.

In number more than are the drops that fall.

When Boreas rents a thousand swelling clouds ;

And proud Orcanes of Natolia 160

With all his viceroys shall be so afraid.

That though the stones, as at Deucalion's flood,

Were turned to men, he should be overcome

Such lavish will I make of Turkish blood,

That Jove shall send his wingbd messenger

To bid me sheath my sword and leave the field ;

The sun unable to sustain the sight.

Shall hide his head in Thetis' watery lap.

And leave his steeds to fair Bootes' ^ charge ;

For half the world shall perish in this fight. 170

But now, my friends, let me examine ye ;

How have ye spent your absent time from me ?

Usunu My lord, our men of Barbary have marched
Four hundred miles with armour on their backs,
And lain in leaguer^ fifteen months and more ;
For since we left you at the Soldan's court,

1 So 4to.— 8va " Boetes."

> Camp (usually of assailants at a siege). The word was imported
from the Low CountrieSb

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128 The Second Part of [act i.

We have subdued the southern Guallatia,

And all the land unto the coasts of Spain,

We kept the narrow Strait of Jubaltfer,^

And made Canaria call us kings and lords ; i8o

Yet never did they recreate themselves,

Or cease one day from war and hot alarms,

And therefore let them rest awhile, my lord

Tatnb, They shall, Casane, and 'tis time i'faith.

TecK And I have marched along the river
Nile
To Machda^ where the mighty Christian priest.
Called John the Great,* sits in a milk-white robe.
Whose triple mitre I did take by force,
And made him swear obedience to my crown,
From thence unto Cazates did I march, 190

Where Amazonians met me in the field,
With whom, being women, I vouchsafed a league,
And with my power did march to Zanzibar,
The eastern part of Afric, where I viewed
The Ethiopian sea, rivers and lakes.
But neither man nor child in all the land ;
Therefore I took my course to Manico,
Where unresisted, I removed my camp ;
And by the coast of Byather, at last
I came to Cubar, where the Negroes dwell, 300

And conquering that, made haste to Nubia.

1 Old copies ' * Gibxalter. ** For the sake of the metre I have followed
Dyce in reading JvbaUkr (a form which occurs more than once in the
First Part).

> Better known as " Prester John.*

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 1 29

There, having sacked Bomo the kingly seat,
I took the king and led him bound in chains
Unto Damasco, where I stayed before.

Tamb. Well done, Techelles. WhatsaithTheridamas?

Ther. I left the confines and the bounds of Afric,
And [thence I ^] made a voyage into Europe,
Where by the river, Tyras, I subdued
Stoka, Podolia, and Codemia;

Thence crossed the sea and came to Oblia, 210

And Nigra Sylva, where the devils dance„
Which in despite of them, I set on fire.
From thence I crossed the gulf called by the name
Mare Majore of the inhabitants.
Yet shall my soldiers make no period,
Until Natoha kneel before your feet

Tamb, Then will we triumph, banquet and carouse ;
Cooks shall have pensions to provide us cates,
And glut us with the dainties of the world ;
Lachryma Christi and Calabrian wines 220

Shall common soldiers drink in quaffing bowls,
I, liquid gold (when we have conquered him)
Mingled with coral atid with orient ^ pearl
Come, let us banquet and carouse the whiles. \Exeunt,

1 The bracketed woxds were inserted by Cunningham to complete
the line,

« «yo. "oricntall"— 4to. "oriental."

VOL. I.

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( I30 )

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE I.

Enter Sigismund, Frederick, Baldwin, andihdr train,

Sig. Now say, my lords of Buda and Bohemia,
What motion is it that inflames your thoughts,
And stirs your valours to such sudden arms ?

Fred, Your majesty remembers, I am sure.
What cruel slaughter of our Christian bloods
These heathenish Turks and Pagans lately made,
Betwixt the city Zula and Danubius ;
How through the midst of Varna and Bulgaria,
And almost to the very walls of Rome,
They have, not long since, massacred our camp. lo

It resteth now, then, that your majesty
Take all advantages of time and power,
And work revenge upon these infidels.
Your highness knows, for Tamburlaine's repair.
That strikes a terror to all Turkish hearts,
Natolia hath dismissed the greatest part
Of all his army, pitched against our power,
Betwixt Cutheia and Orminius' mount.
And sent them marching up to Belgasar,
Acantha, Antioch, and Caesarea, 20

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SCENE L] Tamburlaine the Great. 131

To aid the kings of Soria, and Jerusalem.
Now then, my lord, advantage take thereof,
And issue suddenly upon the rest ;
That in the fortune of their overthrow,
We may discourage all the pagan troop,
That dare attempt to war with Christians.

Sig, But calls not then your grace to memory
The league we lately made with King Orcanes,
Confirmed by oath and articles of peace,
And calling Christ for record of our truths ? 30

This should be treachery and violence
Against the grace of our profession.

BcUd. No whit, my lord, for with such infidels.
In whom no faith nor true religion rests,
We are not bound to those accomplishments
The holy laws of Christendom enjoin ;
But as the faith, which they profanely plight.
Is not by necessary policy
To be esteemed assurance for ourselves.
So that we vow to them should not infringe 40

Our liberty of arms or victory.

Sig, Though I confess the oaths they undertake
Breed little strength to our security,
Yet those infirmities that thus defame
Their faiths, their honours, and their religion,
Should not give us presumption to the like.
Our faiths are sound, and must be consummate,^
Religious, righteous, and inviolate.

1 This is Dyce's emendation for Uie old copies, " oonsinuate.**

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132 The Second Part of [act n.

Fred, Assure your grace 'tis superstition
To stand so strictly on dispensive faith ; 50

And should we lose the opportunity
That God hath given to avenge our Christians' death.
And scourge their foul blasphemous Paganism,
As fell to Saul, to Balaam, and the rest,
That would not kill and curse at God's command.
So surely will the vengeance of the Highest,
And jealous anger of His fearful arm,
Be poured with rigour on our sinful heads,
If we neglect this offered victory.

Sig. Then arm, my lords, and issue suddenly, 60

Giving commandment to our general host,
With expedition to assail the Pagan,
And take the victory our God hath given. [Exeunt,

SCENE II.

Enter Orcanes, Gazelles, and Uribassa, with their
trains.

Ore. Gazellus, Uribassa, and the rest,
Now will we march from proud Ormihius' mount,
To fair Natolia, where our neighbour kings
Expect our power and our royal presence.
To encounter with the cruel Tamburlaine,
That nigh Larissa sways a mighty host.
And with the thunder of his martial^ tools
Makes earthquakes in the hearts of men and heaven.

1 So4to.— 6vo. "materiall."

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SCENE II. 1 Tantburlaine the Great. 133

Gaz, And now come we to make his sinews shake.
With greater power than erst his pride hath felt 10

An hundred kings, by scores, will bid him arms,
And hundred thousands subjects to each score,
Which, if a shower of wounding thunderbolts
Should break out of the bowels of the clouds,
And fall as thick as hail upon our heads,
In partial aid of that proud Scythian,
Yet should our courages and steelbd crests,
And numbers, more than infinite, of men.
Be able to withstand and conquer him.

UrL Methinks I see how glad the Christian king 20
Is made, for joy of your admitted truce.
That could not but before be terrified
With^ unacquainted power of our host.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess, Arm, dread sovereign, and my noble lords !
The treacherous army of the Christians,
Taking advantage of your slender power.
Comes marching on us, and determines straight
To bid us battle for our dearest lives.

Ore, Traitors ! villains ! damnfed Christians !
Have I not here the articles of peace, 30

And solemn covenants we have both confirmed,
He by his Christ, and I by Mahomet ?

Gaz. Hell and confusion light upon their heads,

1 So 4to. — 8va " which." The confusion between vntk and which is
-vay common.

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134 '^f^ Second Part of [act il

That with such treason seek our overthrow,
And care so little for their prophet, Christ I

Ore. Can there be such deceit in Christians,
Or treason in the fleshly heart of man,
Whose shape is figure of the highest God !
Then, if there be a Christ, as Christians say,
But in their deeds deny him for their Christ, 40

If he be son to everliving Jove,
And hath the power of his outstretched arm ;
If he be jealous of his name and honour.
As is our holy prophet, Mahomet ; —
Take here these papers as our sacrifice
And witness of thy servant's perjury.

\He tears to pieces the articles of peace.
Open, thou shining veil of Cynthia,
And make a passage from the empyreal heaven,
That he that sits on high and never sleeps,
Nor in one place is circumscnptible, 50

But everywhere fills every continent
With strange infusion of his sacred vigour,
May in his endless power and purity,
Behold and 'venge this traitor's perjury !
Thou Christ, that art esteemed omnipotent,
If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect God,
Worthy the worship of all faithful hearts,
Be now revenged upon this traitor's soul,
And make the power I have left behind,
(Too little to defend our guiltless lives,) 60

Sufficient to discomfort and confound
The trustless force of those false Christians.

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scKNsiii.] Tamburlazne the Great. 135

To arms, my lords ! On Christ still let us cry !
If there be Christ, we shall have victory.

SCENE III.

Alarums of battle, — Enter Sigishund, wounded.

Ssg. Discomfited is all the Christian host,
And God hath thundered vengeance from on high,
For my accursed and hateful perjury.
O, just and dreadful punisher of sin,
Let the dishonour of the pains I feel,
In this my mortal well-deserved wound.
End all my penance in my sudden death !
And let this death, wherein to sin I die,
Conceive a second life in endless mercy I [He dies.

Enter Orcanes, Gazellus, Uribassa, and others.

Ore Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods, lo
And Christ or Mahomet hath been my friend

Gaz. See here the perjured traitor Hungary,
Bloody and breathless for his villany.

Ore. Now shall his barbarous body be a prey
To beasts and fowls, and all the winds shall breathe
Through shady leaves of every senseless tree
Murmurs and hisses for his heinous sin.
Now scalds his soul in the Tartarian streams,
And feeds upon the baneful tree of hell,
That Zoacum,^ that fruit of bitterness, 30

1 **OtZaMk4m. The description of this tree is taken from a fable in
the Koran, chap. yj.'^—Ed. x8a6.

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1 36 The Second Part of [act h.

That in the midst of fire is ingrafifed,

Yet flourishes as Flora in her pride,

With apples like the heads of damned fiends.

The devil there, in chains of quenchless flame,

Shall lead his soul through Orcus' burning gulph,

From pain to pain, whose change shall never end

What say'st thou yet, Gazellus, to his foil

Which we referred to justice of his Christ,

And to his power, which here appears as full

As rays of Cynthia to the clearest sight ? 30

Gaz, 'Tis but the fortune of the wars, my lord,
Whose power is often proved a miracle.

Ore, Yet in my thoughts shall Christ be honourM,
Not doing Mahomet an injury,
Whose power had share in this our victory ;
And since this miscreant hath disgraced his faith,
And died a traitor both to heaven and earth.
We wilP both watch and ward shall keep his trunk
Amidst these plains for fowls to prey upon.
Go, Uribassa, give it straight in charge. 40

Uri, I will, my lord. \Eont.

Ore. And now, Gazellus, let us haste and meet
Our army, and our brother[s] of Jerusalem,
Of Soria, Trebizond, and Amasia,
And happily, with full Natolian bowls
Of Greekish wine, now let us celebrate
Our happy conquest and his angry fate. \Exeunt.

1 I.e, " we desire that both watch," ftc. So4ta-8vo. "a«Jkeepe.*

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SCENE v.] Tamburlaine the Great. 137

SCENE IV.

Zenocrate is discovered lying in her bed of state ; Tam-
burlaine sitting by her ; three Physicians about her
bed, tempering potions ; Theridamas, Techelles,

^ UsuMCASANE, and the three Sons.

Tamb, Black is the beauty of the brightest day ;
The golden ball of Heaven's eternal fire,
That danced with glory on the silver waves,
Now wants the fuel that inflamed his beams ;
And all with faintness, and for foul disgrace,
He binds his temples with a frowning cloud,
Ready to darken earth with endless night.
Zenocrate, that gave him light and life,
Whose eyes shot fire from their ^ ivory bowers.
And tempered every soul with lively heat, 10

Now by the malice of the angry skies,
y^host jealousy admits no second mate.
Draws in the comfort of her latest breath,
M\ dazzled with the hellish mists of death.
Now walk the angels on the walls of heaven,
As sentinels to warn the immortal souls
To entertain divine Zenocrate.
Apollo, C3mthia, and the ceaseless lamps
That gently looked upon this loathsome earth,
Shine downward now no more, but deck the heavens, 20
To entertain divine Zenocrate.

1 So 4to.— Omitted in 8va

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138 The Second Part of [act u.

The crystal springs, whose taste illuminates

Refinbd eyes with an eternal sight.

Like tribd silver, run through Paradise,

To entertain divine Zenocrate.

The cherubins and holy seraphins,

That sing and play before the King of kings,

Use all their voices and their instruments

To entertain divine Zenocrate.

And in this sweet and curious harmony, jo

The God that tunes this music to our souls,

Holds out his hand in highest majesty

To entertain divine Zenocrate.

Then let some holy trance convey my thoughts

Up to the palace of th' empyreal heaven,

That this my life may be as short to me

As are the days of sweet Zenocrate. —

Physicians, will no^ physic do her good ?

Phys, My lord, your majesty shall soon perceive :
An if she pass this fit, the worst is past 40

Tamb, Tell me, how Cares my fair Zenocrate ?

Zeno, I fare, my lord, as other empresses.
That, when this frail and ^ transitory flesh
Hath sucked the measure of that vital air
That feeds the body with his dated health,
Wane with enforced and necessary change.

Tamb, May never such a change transfonn my
love,
In whose sweet being I repose my life,

1 So4to.— 8vo. "not"
« So4ta— 8vo. **a,*'

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SCENE IV.] Tamburlaine the Great. 1 39

Whose heavenly presence, beautified with health,
Gives light to Fhcebus and the fixfed stars ! 50

Whose absence makes ^ the sun and moon as dark
As when, opposed in one diameter,
Their spheres are mounted on the serpent's head,
Or else descended to his winding train.
Live still, my love, and so conserve my life.
Or, dying, be the author* of my death !
Zeno, Live still, my lord! O, let my sovereign
live I
And sooner let the fiery element
Dissolve and make your kingdom in the sky,
Than this base earth should shroud your majesty : 60
For should I but suspect your death by mine,
The comfort of my future happiness.
And hope to meet your highness in the heavens.
Turned to despair, would break my wretched breast.
And fury would confound my present rest.
But let me die, my love ; yet let me die ;
With love and patience let your true love die !
Your grief and fury hurts my second life. —
Yet let me kiss my lord before I die,
And let me die with kissing of my lord 70

But since my life is lengthened yet a while,
Let me take leave of these my loving sons.
And of my lords, whose true nobility
Have merited my latest memory.
Sweet sons, farewell ! In death resemble me,

1 So4to.— SvQ. "make."
• So 4to.— 8¥o. " anchor.'*

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1 40 The Second Part of [act n.

And in your lives your father's excellence.^
Some music, and my fit will cease, my lord.

\They call for music
Tamb, Proud fury, and intolerable fit,
That dares torment the body of my love,
And scourge the scourge of the immortal God : 80

Now are those spheres, where Cupid used to sit,
Wounding the world with wonder and with love,
Sadly supplied with pale and ghastly death.
Whose darts do pierce the centre of my souL
Her sacred beauty hath enchanted heaven ;
And had she lived before the siege of Troy,
Helen (whose beauty summoned Greece to arms,
And drew a thousand ships to Tenedos)
Had not been named in Homer's Iliads ;
Her name had been in every line he wrote. 90

Or had those wanton poets, for whose birth
Old Rome was proud, but gazed a while on her,
Nor Lesbia nor Corinna had been named ;
Zenocrate had been the argument
Of every epigram or elegy.

[The music sounds. — Zenocrate dies.
What ! is she dead ? Techelles, draw thy sword
And wound the earth, that it may cleave in twain.
And we descend into the infernal vaults.
To hale the Fatal Sisters by the hair,*

* So4to. — 8va ••cxceUcDCy.**

s *' This is very like the raving of old Titus Andronicus : —

' I'll dive into the infernal lake below

And poll her out of Acheron by the heeb.' ** —Broughifim,

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SCENE IV.] Tamburlaine the Great 141

And throw them in the triple moat of hell, ^«>

For taking hence my fair Zenocrate.

Casane and Theridamas, to arms !

Raise cavalieros ^ higher than the clouds,

And with the cannon break the frame of heaven ;

Batter the shining palace of the sun,

And shiver all the starry firmament,

For amorous Jove hath snatched my love from hence,

Meaning to make her stately queen of heaven.

What God soever holds thee in his arms.

Giving thee nectar and ambrosia, *'o

Behold me here, divine Zenocrate,

Raving, impatient, desperate, and mad,

Breakmg my steeled lance, with which I burst

The rusty beams of Janus' temple-doors,

Letting out Death and tyrannising War,

To march with me under this bloody flag !

And if thou pitiest Tamburlaine the Great,

Come down from heaven, and live with me again !

Ther, Ah, good my lord, be patient ; she is dead,
And all this raging cannot make her live. 120

If words might serve, our voice hath rent the air ;
If tears, our eyes have watered all the earth \
If grief, our murdered hearts have strained forth blood ;
Nothing prevails,^ for she is dead, my lord.

' *' Cavalier is the word still used for a mound for cannon, elevated
above the rest of the works of a fortress, as a horseman is raised above
a foot-soldier." — Cunningham,
* Avails. So Peele (in Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes) :—
"O king, the knight is fled and gone, ^yxami prevaiUth nought,**

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142 Tamburlaine the Great. . [actil

Tamb. For she is deadl Thy words do pierce my

soul!
Ah, sweet Theridamas ! say so no more ;
Though she be dead, yet let me think she lives,
And feed my mind that dies for want of her.
Where'er her soul be, thou \To the body\ shalt stay with

me,
Embalmed with cassia, ambergris, and myrrh, 130

Not lapt in lead, but in a sheet of gold^
And till I die thou shalt not be interred.
Then in as rich a tomb as Mausolus'
We both will rest and have our epitaph
Writ in as many several languages
As I have conquered kingdoms with my sword.
This cursfed town will I consume with fire,
Because this place bereaved me of my love :
The houses, burnt, will look as if they mourned ;
And here will I set up her statua,^ 140

And march about it with my mourning camp
Drooping and pining for Zenocrate. \The scene dosts,

1 Old copies give *'statare," but the metre requires a trisyllable.

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( 143 )

ACT THE THIRD.

SCENE I.

EnUr the Kings of Trebizond and Syria, one bearing a
sword^ and the other a sceptre; next the Kings of
Natolia and Jerusalem, with the imperial crown ;
after^ Callapine, and after him other Lords and
Almeda. Orcanes and the King of Jerusalem
crown him^ and the others give him the sceptre.

Ore. Callapinus Cyricelibes, otherwise Cybelius, son
and successive heir to the late mighty emperor, Bajazeth,
by the aid of God and his friend Mahomet, emperor of
Natolia, Jerusalem, Trebizond, Soria, Amasia, Thracia,
niyria, Carroania, and all the hundred and thirty king-
doms late contributory to his mighty father. Long live
Callapinus, Emperor of Turkey 1

CalL Thrice worthy kings of Natolia, and the rest,
I will requite your royal gratitudes
With all the benefits my empire yields ; xo

And were the sinews of the imperial seat
So knit and strengthened as when Bajazeth
My royal lord and father filled the throne,
Whose cursM fate hath so dismembered it,

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144 The Second Part of [act m.

Then should you see this chief of Scythia,

This proud, usurping king of Persia,

Do us such honour and supremacy,

Bearing the vengeance of our father's wrongs.

As all the world should blot his ^ dignities

Out of the book of base-born infamies. 20

And now I doubt not but your royal cares

Have so provided for this cursed foe,

That, since the heir of mighty Bajazeth,

(An emperor so honoured for his virtues,)

Revives the spirits of all true Turkish hearts,

In grievous memory of his father's shame.

We shall not need to nourish any doubt,

But that proud fortune, who hath followed long

The martial sword of mighty Tamburlaine,

Will now retain her old inconstancy, 30

And raise our honours to as high a pitch,

In this our strong and fortunate encounter ;

For so hath heaven provided my escape.

From all the cruelty my soul sustained,

By this my friendly keeper's happy means.

That Jove, surcharged with pity of our wrongs.

Will pour it down in showers on our heads,

Scourging the pride of cursM Tamburlaine.

Ore, I have a hundred thousand men in arms ;
Some, that in conquest * of the perjured Christian, 40
Being a handful to a mighty host.

1 Old copies "our."
> So 4ta— 8?a "in M« conquest."

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SCENE!.] Tamburlaine the Great. 149

Think them in number yet sufficient
To drink the river Nile or Euphrates,
And for their power enow to win the world.

Jer. And I as many from Jerusalem,
Judaea, Gaza, and Sclavonia's ^ bounds,
That on Mount Sinai with their ensigns spread,
Look like the parti-coloured clouds of heaven
That show fair weather to the neighbour mora

Treh, And I as many bring from Trebizond, 5°

Chio, Famastro, and Amasia
All bordering on the Mare Major sea,
Riso, Sancina, and the bordering towns
That touch the end of famous Euphrates,
Whose courages are kindled with the flames.
The cursed Scythian sets on all their towns.
And vow to burn the villain's cruel heart.

Syr. From Syria ^ with seventy thousand strong
Ta'en from Aleppo, Soldino, Tripoli,
And so on to my city of Damasco, 60

I march to meet and aid my neighbour kings ;
All which will join against this Tamburlaine,
And bring him captive to your highness' feet.

Ore, Our battle then in martial manner pitched.
According to our ancient use, shall bear
The figure of the semicircled moon.
Whose horns shall sprinkle through the tainted air
The poisoned brains of this proud Scythian.

^ Svo. "Scalonians." — 4to. " Sclavonians."

* So 8vo. — Elsewhere 8vo. gives the form "Soria" (which is found
in Ben Jonson, &c.)

VOL. I. K

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146 The Second Part of [act m.

CalL Well then, my noble lords, for this my friend
That freed me from the bondage of my foe, 70

I think it requisite and honourable,
To keep my promise and to make him king.
That is a gentleman, I know, at least

Aim, That's no matter, sir, for being a king; [f]or
Tamburlaine came up of nothing.

Jer, Your majesty may choose some 'pointed time,
Performing all your promise to the full ;
Tis nought for your majesty to give a kingdom.

Call, Then will I shortly keep my promise, Almeda.

Aim. Why, I thank your majesty. \E30eunt 80

SCENE II.

Enter Tamburlaine, with Usumcasane, and his thru
Sons ; four Attendants bearing the hearse of Zeno-
crate, and the drums sounding a doleful march ; the
town burning,

Tamb, So bum the turrets of this cursbd town.
Flame to the highest region of the air.
And kindle heaps of exhalations,
That being fiery meteors may presage
Death and destruction to the inhabitants !
Over my zenith hang a blazing star,
That may endure till heaven be dissolved,
Fed with the fresh supply of earthly dregs.
Threatening a dearth ^ and famine to this land i
Flying dragons, lightning, fearful thunderclaps, zo

1 Old copies "death."

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scBNEii.] Tamburlaine the Great. 147

Singe these fair plains and make them seem as black

As is the island where the Furies mask.

Compassed with Lethe, Styx, and Phlegethon,

Because my dear'st Zenocrate is dead.
CaL This pillar, placed in memory of her,

Where in Arabian, Hebrew, Greek, is writ : —

This towrij being burnt by Tamburlaine the Great,

Forbids the world to build it up again.

Amy. And here this mournful streamer shall be placed,

Wrought with the Persian and th' Egyptian arms, 20

To signify she was a princess bom,

And wife unto the monarch of the East
Cel. And here this table as a register

Of all her virtues and perfections.

Tamb, And here the picture of Zenocrate,
To show her beauty which the world admired ;
Sweet picture of divine Zenocrate,
That, hanging here, will draw the gods from heaven,
And cause the stars fixed in the southern arc,
(Whose lovely faces never any viewed 30

That have not passed the centre's latitude,)
As pilgrims, travel to our hemisphere.
Only to gaze upon Zenocrate.
Thou shalt not beautify Larissa plains,
But keep within the circle of mine arms.
At every town and castle I besiege.
Thou shalt be set upon my royal tent ;
And when I meet an army in the field,
Those ^ looks will shed such influence in my camp

1 Old copies** Whose."

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1 48 The Second Part of [act ul

As if Bellona, goddess of the war, 40

Threw naked swords and sulphur-balls of fire

Upon the heads of all our enemies.

And now, my lords, advance your spears again :

Sorrow no more, my sweet Casane, now ;

Boys, leave to mourn ! this town shall ever mourn,

Being burnt to cinders for your mother's death.

CaL If I had wept a sea of tears for her,
It would not ease the sorrows I sustain.

Amy. As is that town, so is my heart consumed
With grief and sorrow for my mother's death. 50

CeL My mother's death hath mortified my mind.
And sorrow stops the passage of my speech.

Tamb. But now, my boys, leave ofif and list to me,
That mean to teach you rudiments of war ;
I'll have you learn to sleep upon the ground,
March in your armour thorough watery fens.
Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold,
Hunger and thirst,^ right adjuncts of the war,
And after this to scale a castle wall,
Besiege a fort, to undermine a town, 60

And make whole cities caper in the air.
Then next the way to fortify your men ;
In champion grounds, what figure serves you best.
For which * the quinque-angle form is meet,
Because the comers there may fall more flat
Whereas the fort may fittest be assailed.
And sharpest where the assault is desperate.

1 So4to.— 8vo. "colde."
« Old copies "with."

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SCENE iL] Tamburlaine the Great. 149

The ditches must be deep ; the counterscarps

Narrow and steep ; the walls made high and broad ;

The bulwarks and the rampires large and strong, 70

With cavalieros and thick counterforts,

And room within to lodge six thousand men.

It must have privy ditches, countermines,

And secret issuings to defend the ditch \

It must have high argins ^ and covered ways,

To keep the bulwark fronts from battery,

And parapets to hide the musketers ^ ;

Casemates to place the great artillery ;

And store of ordnance, that from every flank

May scour the outward curtains of the fort, 80

Dismount the cannon of the adverse part.

Murder the foe, and save the ' walls from breach.

When this is reamed for service on the land,

By plain and easy demonstration

I'll teach you how to make the water mount.

That you may dry-foot march through lakes and

pools,
Deep rivers, havens, creeks, and little seas,
And make a fortress in the raging waves.
Fenced with the concave of a monstrous rock.
Invincible by nature of the place. 90

When this is done, then are ye soldiers.
And worthy sons of Tamburlaine the Great.

1 ^*^Argin is an earthwork, and here must mean the particular earth-
work called ^tgUuis. The covered way is the protected road between
the argin and the counterscarp,*^— Cunningham,

> So the old copies.— Dyce, who keeps the form *'pioner'* for
"pioneer," prints " musketeers."

•Old copies "their.'*

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1 50 The Second Part of Iact m.

Cai. My lord, but this is dangerous to be done ;
We may be slain or wounded ere we learn.

Tamb, Villain ! Art thou the son of Tamburlaine,
And fear'st to die, or with the curtle^axe
To hew thy fiesh, and make a gaping wound ?
Hast thou beheld a peal of ordnance strike
A ring of pikes, mingled with shot ^ and horse.
Whose shattered limbs, being tossed as high as heaven, 100
Hang in the air as thick as sunny motes,
And canst thou, coward, stand in fear of death ?
Hast thou not seen my horsemen charge the foe,
Shot through the arms, cut overthwart the hands,
Dyeing their lances with their streaming blood,
And yet at night carouse within my tentj
Filling their empty veins with airy wine,
That, being concocted, turns to crimson blood.
And wilt thou shun the field for fear of wounds ?
View me, thy father, that hath conquered kings, no

And, with his horse, marched ^ round about the earth.
Quite void of scars, and clear from any wound,
That by the wars lost not a drop^ of blood.
And see him lanch his flesh to teach you alL

\H€ cuts his amu
A wound is nothing, be it ne'er so deep ;
Blood is the god of war's rich livery.
Now look I like a soldier, and this wound

1 The simplest change is to read*' foot" Mitfoxxl proposed, " A,riqg
of pikes and horse, mangled with shot."
» So 4to.-*8va " march."
• So 8vo.— 4to." dram."

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SCENE n.] Tamburlaine the Great. 151

As great a grace and majesty to me.

As if a chain of gold, enamelled,

Enchased with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, 120

And fairest pearl of wealthy India,

Were mounted here under a canopy.

And I sate down clothed with a massy robe.

That late adorned the Afric potentate.

Whom I brought bound unto Damascus walls.

Come, bo3rs, and with your fingers search my wound,

And in my blood wash all your hands at once,

While I sit smiling to behold the sight

Now, my boys, what think ye of a wound ?

Col. I know nof what I should think of it \ methinks 130
it is a pitiful sight

CeL This ? nothing : give me a wound, father.

Amy, And me another, my lord.

Tamb. Come, sirrah, give me your arm.

Cd. Here, father, cut it bravely, as you did your own.

Tamh. It shall suffice thou darest abide a wound ;
My boy, thou shalt not lose a drop of blood
Before we meet the army of the Turk ;
But then run desperate through the thickest throngs,
Dreadless of blows, of bloody wounds, and death ; 140
And let the burning of Larissa walls,
My speech of war, and this my wound you see,
Teach you, my boys, to bear courageous minds.
Fit for the followers of Great Tamburlaine !
TJsumcasane, now come let us march
Towards Techelles and Theridamas,
That we have sent before to fire the towns

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152 The Second Part of [act m.

The towers and cities of these hateful Turks,

And hunt that coward, faint-heart runaway,

With that accursed * traitor Almeda, 130

Till fire and sword have found them at a bay.

Usum, I long to pierce his ^ bowels with my sword,
That hath betrayed my gracious sovereign, —
That cursed and damnbd traitor Almeda.

Tamh, Then let us see if coward Callapine
Dare levy arms against our puissance,
That we may tread upon his captive neck.
And treble all his father's slaveries. \Extunt

SCENE III.
Enter Techelles, Theridamas, and thdr train.

Thtr, Thus have we marched northward from Tam-
burlaine,
Unto the frontier point * of Syria ;
And this is Balsora, their chiefest hold,
Wherein is all the treasure of the land.

Tech, Then let us bring our light artillery,
Minions,* falconets, and sakers, to the trench,
Filling the ditches with the walls' wide breach,
And enter in to seize upon the gold
How say you, soldiers ? shall we [or] not ?

1 So4to.— 8vo. "cursed."

« So4to.— 8vo. "the."

» SoSva— 4I0. "port."

^ Minions, &c., were pieces of small ordnance.

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 153

Sold, Yes, my lord, yes ; come, let's about it. 10

Ther, But stay awhile ; summon a parle, drum.
It may be they will yield it quietly,
Knowing two kings, the friends ^ to Tamburlaine,
Stand at the walls with such a mighty power.

A park sounded. — Captain appears on the walls^ with
Olympia his Wife, and Son.

Capt. What require you, my masters ?

Ther. Captain, that thou yield up thy hold to us.

Capt.. To you ! Why, do you * think me weary of it ?

Tech, Nay, captain, thou art weary of thy life,
If thou withstand the friends of Tamburlaine I

Ther. These pioners of Argier in Africa, 20

Even in the cannon's face, shall raise a hill
Of earth and faggots higher than the fort,
And over thy argins and covered ways
Shall play upon the bulwarks of thy hold
VoUeys of ordnance, till the breach be made
That with his ruin fills up all the trench,
And when we enter in, not heaven itself
Shall ransom thee, thy wife, and family.

Teeh. Captain, these Moors shall cut the leaden pipes,
That bring fresh water to thy men and thee, 30

And lie in trench before thy castle walls,
That no supply of victual shall come in.
Nor [any] issue forth but they shall die ;
And, therefore, captain, yield it quietly.

1 So 4to.— 8vo. " friend."
« So4to.— 8va "thou."

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154 T^f^ Second Part of [act m.

Capt Were you, that are the friends of Tamburlaine,
Brothers to holy Mahomet himself,
I would not yield it ; therefore do your worst :
Raise mounts, batter, mtrench, and undermine,
Cut off the water, all convoys that can,^
Yet I am resolute, and so farewell. 40

[Captain, Olympia, and their Son retire
from t/ie walls.

Ther. Pioners, away I and where I stuck the stake,
Intrench with those dimensions I prescribed
Cast up the earth towards the castle wall,
Which, till it may defend you, labour low.
And few or none shall perish by their shot

Pio. We will, my lord. [Exeunt Pioners.

Tech, A hundred horse shall scout about the plains
To spy what force comes to relieve the hold.
Both we, Theridamas, will entrench our men,
And with the Jacob's staff measure the height 50

And distance of the castle from the trench,
That we may know if our artillery
Will carry full point blank unto their walls.

Ther. Then see the bringing of our ordinance
Along the trench into the battery,
Where we will have gabions ^ of six foot broad

^ Dyce supposes this to mean " all convoys that can be cut oflt,** The
1826 editor reads " come," and perhaps the correction is right.

s Old copies "gallions." The correction was made by Cunningham
(who had been anticipated by Broughton). He quotes from Kerse3r's
dictionary : — " GoHons or canncH-baskets are great baskets, which, being
filled with earth, are placed upon batteries."

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SCENE IV.] Tamburlaine the Great. 155

To save our cannoniers from musket shot
Betwixt which shall our ordnance thunder forth,
And with the breach's fall, smoke, fire, and dust,
The crack, the echo, and the soldier's cry, 60

Make deaf the ear and dim the crystal sky.

Tech, Trumpets and drums, alarum presently ;
And, soldiers, play the men ; the hold ^ is yours,

\Eooeunt

SCENE IV.

Alarum within. — Enter the Captain, with Olympia,
and his Son.

Olymp. Come, good my lord, and let us haste from
hence
Along the cave that leads beyond the foe \
No hope is left to save this conquered hold.

Capt. A deadly bullet, gliding through my side,
Lies heavy on my heart ; I cannot live.
I feel my liver pierced, and all my veins.
That there begin and nourish every part,
Mangled and torn, and all my entrails bathed
In blood that straineth ^ from their orifex.
Farewell, sweet wife ! sweet son, farewell ! I die. 10

\Hedies.

1 So4to.— 8vo. "holds.**

> So 4to. — 8to. *' stalneih. " The confusion between stain and strain is
constantly occurring. In Shelley's dirge, " Rough wind that moanest
loud/' we should surely read, " Bare woods whose branches strain,'*

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156 The Second Part of [act m.

Olym, Death, whither art thou gone, that both we live?
Come back again, sweet Death, and strike us both !
One minute end our days ! and one sephlchre
Contain our bodies ! Death, why com'st thou not ?
Well, this must be the messenger for thee :

\Prawing a dagger.
Now, ugly Death, stretch out thy sable wings,
And carry both our souls where his remains.
Tell me, sweet boy, art thou content to die ?
These barbarous Scythians, full of cruelty,
And Moors, in whom was never pity found, 20

Will hew us piecemeal, put us to the whed,
Or else invent some torture worse than that ;
Therefore die by thy loving mother's hand,
Who gently now will lance thy ivory throat.
And quickly rid thee both of pain and life.

Son, Mother, despatch me, or Til kill myself;
For think you I can live and see him dead ?
Give me your knife, good mother, or strike home :
The Scythians shall not tyrannize on me :
Sweet mother, strike, that I may see my father. 30

[She stabs him and he dies.

Olymp, Ah, sacred Mahomet, if this be sin,
Entreat a pardon of the G<?d of heaven,
And purge my soul before it come to thee.

[She bums the bodies of her husband and son
and then attempts to kill herself.

Enter Thbridamas, Tbchelles, and all their train.
Ther. How now, madam, what are you doing?

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SCENE lY.] Tamburlaine the Great. 157

Olymp, Killing myself, as I have done my son,

Whose body, with his father's, I have burnt,

Lest cruel Scythians should dismember him.
Teck 'Twas bravely done, and, like a soldier's wife.

Thou shalt with us to Tamburlaine the Grea^

Who, when he hears how resolute thou art, 40

Will match thee with a viceroy or a king.
Olymp. My lord deceased was dearer unto me

That any viceroy, king, or emperor ;

And for his sake here will I end my days.
Ther, But, lady, go with us to Tamburlaine,

And thou shalt see a man, greater than Mahomet,

In whose high looks is much more majesty,

Than from the concave superficies

Of Jove's vast palace, the empyreal orb.

Unto the shining bower where Cynthia sits, 50

Like lovely Thetis, in a crystal robe ;

That treadeth fortune underneath his feet,

And makes the mighty god of arms his slave ;

On whom Death and the Fatal Sisters wait

With naked swords and scarlet liveries :

Before whom, mounted on a lion's back,

Rhamnusia bears a helmet full of blood,

And strews the way with brains of slaughtered men ;

By whose proud side the ugly Furies run,

Hearkening when he shall bid them plague the world j ^o

Over whose zenith, clothed in windy air.

And eagle's wings join'd ^ to her feathered breast,

*So4to.— 8vo. ••inioin'd.'*

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158 The Second Part of [act hl

Fame hovereth, sounding of her golden trump,
That to the adverse poles of that straight line^
Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven.
The name of mighty Tamburlaine is spread,
And him, fair lady, shall thy eyes behold.
Come!

Olymp, Take pity of a lady's ruthful tears.
That humbly craves upon her knees to stay 7©

And cast her body in the burning flame,
That feeds upon her son's and husband's flesh.

Tech, Madam, sooner shall flre consume us both,
Than scorch a £aice so beautiful as this.
In frame of which Nature hath showed more skill
Than when she gave eternal chaos form.
Drawing from it the shining lamps of heaven.

Ther. Madam, I am so far in love with you,
That you must go with us — no remedy.

Olymp, Then carry me, I care not, where you will, &>
And let the end of this my fatal journey
Be likewise end to my accursed life.

Tuh. No, madam, but beginning of your joy :
Come willingly therefore.

Ther. Soldiers, now let us meet the general.
Who by this time is at Natolia,
Ready to charge the army of the Turk.
The gold and silver, and the pearl, we got.
Rifling this fort, divide in equal shares :
This lady shall have twice as much again 9^

Out of the coflers of our treasury. \Exatnt.

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SCENE v.] Tamburlaine the Great 159

SCENE V.

Enter Callapine, Orcanes, Almeda, and the Kings of
Jerusalem, Trebizond, and Soria, with their trains, —
To them enter a Messenger.

Mes. Renowm^d emperor, mighty Callapine,
God's ^reat lieutenant over all the world I
Here at Aleppo, with a host of men,
Lies Tamburlaine^ this king of Persia,
(In numbers more than are the ^ quivering leaves
Of Ida's forest, where your highness' hounds,
With open cry, pursue the wounded stag,)
Who means to girt Natolia's walls with siege,
Fire the town, and overrun the land.

CalL My royal army is as great as his, 10

That, from the bounds of Phrygia to the sea
Which washeth Cyprus with his brinish waves,
Covers the hills, the valleys, and the plains.
Viceroys and peers of Turkey, play the men ! *
Whet all your swords, to mangle Tamburlaine,
His sons, his captains, and his followers ;
By Mahomet ! not one of them shall live ;
The field wherein this battle shall be fought
For ever term the Persian's sepulchre,
In memory of this our victory ! 20

1 So4ta— 8vo. "thia."

* We have had this expression already (in sc. 3, 1. 63). Cf. z Henry
K/., L 6, L 6^—** When they shall hear how we have flayed the

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i6o The Second Part of [act hl

Ore, Now, he that calls himself the scourge of Jove,
The emperor of the world, and earthly god,
Shall end the warlike progress he intends,
And travel headlong to the lake of hell,
Where legions of devils, (knowing he must die
Here, in Natolia, by your highness' hands,)
All brandishing their brands ^ of quenchless fire.
Stretching their monstrous paws, grin with ^ their teeth,
And guard the gates to entertain his soul.

CalL Tell me, viceroys, the number of your men, 30
And what our army royal is esteemed,
Jer, From Palestina and Jerusalem,
Of Hebrews threescore thousand fighting men
Are come since last we showed your majesty.

Ore. So from Arabia Desert, and the bounds
Of that sweet land, whose brave metropolis
Re-edified the fair Semiramis,
Came forty thousand warlike foot and horse.
Since last we numbered to your majesty.

Trch. From Trebizond, in Asia the Less, 40

Naturalised Turks and stout Bithynians
Came to my bands, full fifty thousand more
(That, fighting, know not what retreat doth mean.
Nor e'er return but with the victory,)
Since last we numbered to your majesty.

Sor, Of Sorians from Halla is repaired,
And neighbour cities of your highness' land.

1 So 4to.— 8vo. " in their brands."
s So 4to.— omitted in 8va

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SCENE v.] Tamburlaine the Great. 1 6 1

Ten thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot.

Since last we numbered to your majesty \

So that the royal army is esteemed 50

Six hundred thousand valiant fighting men.

CalL Then welcome, Tambiurlaine, unto thy death.
Come, puissant viceroys, let us to the field,
(The Persians' sepulchre,) and sacrifice
Mountains of breathless men to Mahomet,
Who now, with Jove, opens the firmament
To see the slaughter of our enemies.

Enter Tamburlaine and his three Sons^

XJSUMCASANE, &*€.

Tamb. How now, Casane? See a knot of kings,
Sitting as if they were a telling riddles*
Usum. My lord, your presence makes them pale
and wan : ^

Poor souls ! they look as if their deaths were
near.
Tamb. And so he is, Casane ; I am here ;
But yet 111 save their lives, and make them slaves.
Ye petty kings of Turkey, I am come.
As Hector did into the Grecian camp,
To overdare the pride af Grsecia,
And set his warlike person to the view
Of fierce Achilles, rival of his fame :
I do you honour in the simile ;

For if I should, as Hector did Achilles, ;o

(The worthiest knight that ever brandished sword),
Challenge in combat any of you all,

L

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1 62 The Second Part of [act m.

I see how fearfully ye would refuse,
And fly my glove as fix>m a scotpion.
' Ore, Now thou art fearful of thy army's strength,
Thou would'st with overmatch of person fight ;
But, shepherd's issue, base-bom Tamburlaine,
Think of thy end I this sword shall lance thy throat.

Tamb. Villain ! the shepherd's issue (at whose
birth
Heaven did afford a gracious asp^t, go

And joined those stars that shall be opposite
Even till the dissolution of the world.
And never meant to make a conqueror
So £unous as is mighty Tamburlaine,)
Shall so torment thee and that Callapine,
That, like a roguish runaway, suborned
That villain there, that slave, that Turkish dog,
To false his service to his sovereign,
As ye shall curse the birth of Tamburlaine.

CaU. Rail not, vile Scythian! I shall now

revenge * • ^

My father's vile abuses, and mine own.

Jen By Mahomet 1 he shall be tied in chains,
Rowing with Christians in a brigandine
About the Grecian isles to rob and spoil,
And turn him to his ancient trade again :
Methinks the slave should make a lusty thief

Call, Nay, when the battle ends, all we will
meet, •

And sit in council to invent some pain
That most may vex his body and his souL ...

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SCENE v.] Tamburlaine the Great, 163

Tamh. Sirrah, Callapine ! Til hang a clog about your
neck for running away^ again ; you shall not trouble me
thus to come and fetch you ; 102

But as for you, viceroys, you shall have bits,
And, harnessed like my horses, draw my coach ;
And when ye stay, be lashed with whips of wire.
Ill have you learn to feed on ^ provender
And in a stable lie upon the planks.

Ore. But, Tamburlaine, first thou shall kneel to us,
And humbly crave a pardon for thy life

Treb. The common soldiers of our mighty host no
Shall bring thee bound unto our general's tent

Sor. And all have jointly sworn thy cruel death,
Or bind thee in eternal torments' wrath.

Tamh. Well, sirs, diet yourselves ; you know I shall
have occasion shortly to journey you.

Cel. See, father,
How Almeda the jailor looks upon us.

Tamh. Villain ! traitor ! damnbd fugitive !
Ill make thee wish the earth did swallow thee,
See'st thou hot death within my wrathful looks? 120

Go, villain, cast thee headlong from a rock,
Or rip thy bowels, and rent out thy heart
To appease my wrath ! or else 111 torture thee,
Searing thy hateful flesh with burning irons
And drops of scalding lead, while all thy joints
Be racked and beat asunder with the wheel ;

1 Le. to prevent your ranning away.
» So4to.— 8vo.**with.»'

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1 64 The Second Part of [act hl

For, if thou liv'st, not any element

Shall shroud thee from the wrath of Tamburlaine.

Call, Well, in despite of thee he shall be king.
Come, Almeda ; receive this crown of me, 130

I here invest thee king of Ariadan
Bordering on Mare Roso, near to Mecca.

Ore. What ! Take it, man.

Aim, Good my lord, let me take it \To Tomb,

Call. Dost thou ask him leave ? Here ; take it

Tamb. Go to, sirrah, take your crown, and make up
the half dozen. So, sirrah, now you are a king, you
must give arms.^

Ore. So he shall, and wear thy head in his scutcheon.

Tamb. No ; ' let him hang a bunch of keys on his
standard to put him in remembrance he was a jailor,
that when I take him, I may knock out his brains with
them, and lock you in the stable, when you shall come
sweating from 'my chariot 143

TYeb. Away ; let us to the field, that the villain may
be slain.

Tamb. Sirrah, prepare whips and bring my chariot to
my tent, for as soon as the battle is done, I'll ride in
triumph through the camp.

Enter Theridaicas, Techelles, and their train.
How now, ye petty kings ? Lo, here are bugs'
Will make the hair stand upright on your heads, 150

1 One of the few quibbles in Maxlowe.
« So4ta— Svo. "Go."
* Bugbears.

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SCENE v.] Tamburlaine the Great. 165

And cast your crowns in slavery at their feet
Welcome, Theridamas and Techelles, both !
See ye this rout, and know ye this same king ?

Ther. I, my lord ; he was Callapine's keeper.

Tamb, Well, now ye see he is a king ; look to him,
Theridamas, when we are iightii^ lest he hide his crown
as the foolish king of Persia did.

Sor, No, Tamburlaine; he shall not be put to that
exigent, I warrant thee.

Tamb. You know, not, sir — 160

But now, my followers and my loving friends,
Fight as you ever did, like conquerors,
The glory of this happy day is yours.
My stem aspect shall make fair victory,
Hovering betwixt our armies, light on me
Loaden with laurel wreaths to crown us all.

Tech, I smile to think how, when this field is fought
And rich Natolia ours, our men shall sweat
With carrying pearl and treasure on their backs.

Tamb, You shall be princes all, immediately ; 170
Come, fight ye Turks, or yield us victory.

Ore, No ; we will meet thee, slavish Tamburlaine.

\Exeunt,

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( i66 )

ACT THE FOURTH.

SCENE L

Alarums, — Amyras and Celebinus isstufrom the tent
where Caltphas sits asleep.

Amy. Now in their glories shine the golden crowns
Of these proud Turks, much like so many suns
That half dismay the majesty of heaven.
Now, brother, follow me our father's sword.
That flies with fury swifter than our thoughts,
And cuts down armies with his conquering wings.

Cel. Call forth our lazy brother from the tent,
For if my father miss him in the field,
Wrath, kindled in the furnace of his breast,
Will send a deadly lightning to his heart ig

Amy, Brother ! Ho ! what given so much to sle^ !
You cannot leave it, when our enemies' drums
And rattling cannons thunder in our ears
Our proper ruin and our father's foil ?

Col, Away, ye fools ! my father needs not me,
Nor you in faith, but that you will be thought
More childish-valorous than manly-wise.
If half our camp should sit and sleep with me,
My father were enough to scare the foe.

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SCENE L] Tamburlaine the Great 167

You do dishonour to his majesty, 20

To think our helps will do him any good.

Amy, What ! Dai^st thou then be absent from the
field,
Knowing my father hates thy cowardice,
And oft hath warned thee to be still in field,
When he himself amidst the thickest troops
Beats down our foes, to flesh our taintless swords ?

Col. I know, sir, what it is to kill a man ;
It works remorse of conscience in me ;
I take no pleasure to be murderous, .
Nor care for blood when wine will quench my thirst 30

Cel, O cowardly boy ! Fie ! for shame come forth ; .
Thou dost dishonour manhood and thy house.

Col. Go, go, tall ^ stripling, fight you for us both,
And take my other toward brother here, .
For person like to prove a second Mars. .
'Twill please my mind as well to hear you both
Have won a heap of honour in the field
And left your slender carcaises behind,
As if I lay with you for company.

Amy. You will not go then ?

Cal. You say true. . 40

Amy, Were all the lofty mounts of Zona Mundi •
That fill the midst of farthest Tartary
Turned into pearl and proffered for my stay,

1 Bold. \ The reader will remember Mercutio's ridicule of the foshion-
able tenn: — "The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fentasticoes,
these new timers of accents ! ' By Jesu a very good blade, a veiy tall

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1 68 The Second Part of Iact iv.

I would not bide the fuiy of my father,
When, made a victor in these haughty arms,
He comes and finds his sons have had no shares
In all the honours he proposed for us.

CaL Take you the honour, I will take my ease ;
My wisdom shall excuse my cowardice.
I go into the field before I need I 50

\Alarums, — Amyras and Celebinus run in.
The bullets fly at random where they list ;
And should I go and kill a thousand men,
I were as soon rewarded with a shot,
And sooner far than he that never fights ;
And should I go and do no harm nor good,
I might have harm which all the good I have.
Joined with my father's crown, would never cure.
I'll to cards. Ferdicas.

Perd. Here, my lord.

Col, Come, thou and I will go to cards to drive away
the time. 60

Perd, Content, my lord ; but what shall we play for ?

CaL Who shall kiss the fairest of the Turk's concu-
bines first, when my father hath conquered them.

Perd. Agreed, i'faith. \Th^ play.

Col. They say I am a coward, Perdicas, and I fear as
little their taratantaras, their swords or their cannons, as
I do a naked lady in a net of gold, and, for fear I should
be afi:aid, would put it off and come to bed with me.

Perd Such a fear, my lord, would never make ye retire.

Col. I wotild my father would let me be put in the
front of such a battle once to try my valour. [A/arms.]

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SCENE iL] Tamburlaine the Great 169

What a cofl they keep ! I believe there will be some
hurt done anon amongst them. \Exeunt, 73

SCENE 11.

Enter Tamburlaine, Theridamas, Techilles, Usumca-
SANE, Amyras, and Celebinus, leading the Turkish
Kings.

Tomb. See now, ye slaves, my children stoops ^ your
pride,
And leads your bodies sheeplike to the sword.
Bring them, my boys, and tell me if the wars
Be not a life that may illustrate gods,
And tickle not your spirits with desire
Still to be trained in arms and chivalry ?

Amy, Shall we let go these kings again, my lord,
To gather greater numbers 'gainst our power,
That they may say it is not chance doth this,
But matchless strength and magnanimity ? 10

Tamb. No, no, Amyras ; tempt not fortune so :
Cherish thy valour still with fresh supplies.
And glut it not with stale and daunted foes.
But Where's this coward villain, not my son,
But traitor to my name and majesty ?

\Hegoes in and brings him out.
Image of sloth and picture of a slave.
The obloquy and scorn of my renown 1
How may my heart, thus firfed with mine ^ eyes,

^ Humiliate^ make to stoop.
* So 410.— 8 vo. ** my."

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I70 The Second Part of ; ; [activ.

Wounded with shame and killed with discontent,
Shroud any thought may ^ hold my striving hands ^ 20
From martial justice on thy wretched soul ?

Ther, Yet pardon him, I pray your majesty.

Tech, and Usum, Let all of us entreat your highness'
pardon. '

Tamb. Stand up, ye base, unworthy soldiers !
Know ye not yet the argument of arms ?

Amy. Good my lord, let him be forgiven for once,'
And we will force him to the field hereafter.

Tamb, Stand up, my boys, and I will teach ye arms, .
And what the jealousy of wars must do.
O Samarcanda (where I breathed first 30

And joyed the fire of this martial flesh),
Blush, blush, fair city, at thine honour's foil,'
And shame of nature, which* Jaeitis' stream,
Embracing thee with deepest of his love.
Can never wash firom thy distainbd brows 1
Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again ;
A form not meet to give that subject essence
Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine;
Wherein an incorporeal spirit moves.
Made of the mould whereof thyself consists, 40

Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious,
Ready to levy power against thy throne,
That I migfht move the turning spheres of heaven !

1 So4to.— 8vo. "nay." > So4to.— 8vo. "one"

s Soil, stain. Cunniugham gives an apposite quotation from Brad-
ford the martyr :— " David, that good king, had a foul Jbii when he
committed whoredom with his £uthful servant's wife, Bethsabe.**
* Old copies "with,"

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SCENE n.] Tamburlaine the Great. 171

For earth and all this airy region

Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.

By Mahomet ! thy mighty friend, I swear,

In sending to my issue such a soul.

Created of the massy dregs of earth,

The scum and tartar of the elements,

Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit, 50

But foUy, sloth, and damnM idleness,

Thou hast procured a greater enemy

Than he that darted mountains at thy head.

Shaking the burthen mighty Atlas bears ;

Whereat thou trembling hid'st thee in the air.

Clothed with a pitchy cloud for being seen :

And now, ye cankered curs of Asia,

That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine,

Although it shine as brightly as the sun ;

Now you shall feel the strength of Tamburlaine. 60

And, by the state of his supremacy, \Stabs Calyphas.

Approve the difference 'twixt himself and you.

Ore, Thou shoVst the difference 'twixt ourselves and
thee.
In this thy barbarous damnfed tyranny.

Jer, Thy victories are grown so violent,
That shortly Heaven, filled with the meteors
Of blood and fire thy tyrannies have made,
Will pour down blood and fire on thy head,
Whose scalding drops will pierce thy seething brains.
And, with our bloods, revenge our bloods ^ on thee. 70

1 So4to.~8vo. "Wood."

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172 The Second Part of [act iv.

Tamb, Villains ! these terrors and these tyrannies
(If tyrannies, war's justice ye repute,)
I execute, enjoined me from above,
To scourge the pride of such as Heaven abhors ;
Nor am I made arch-monarch of the world.
Crowned and invested by the hand of Jove
For deeds of bounty and nobility ;
But since I exercise a greater name.
The scourge of God, and terror of the world,
I must apply myself to fit those terms, 80

In war, in blood, in death, in cruelty.
And plague such peasants as resist in ^ me,
The power of Heaven's eternal majesty.
Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane,'
Ransack the tents and the pavilions
Of these proud Turks, and take their concubines,
Making them bury this effeminate brat.
For not a common soldier shall defile
His manly fingers with so faint a boy.
Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent, 90

And I'll dispose them as it likes me best ;
Meanwhile, take him in.

Sold. We wai, my lord.

Jer, O damnM monster I Nay, a fiend of hell.
Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine,
Nor yet imposed with such a bitter hate 1

Ore Revenge it, Rhadamanth and iEacus,

1 Dyce's ooxrection (anticipated by Broughton) for "resistiDg " of the
old copies.
* So 4ta— 8vo. '* Usomcasane.**

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SCENE II.] Tamburlaine the Great. 173

And let your hates, extended in his pains,
Excel ^ the hate wherewith he pains our souls.

Treb, May never day give virtue to his eyes, xoo

Whose sight, composed of fury and of fire.
Doth send such stem affections to his heart

Sor, May never spirit, vein, or artier, feed
The cursM substance of that cruel heart !
But, wanting mobture and remorseful blood,
Dry up with anger, and consume with heat.

Tamb, Well, bark, ye dogs ; I'll bridle all your tongues.
And bind them close with bits of burnished steel,
Down to the channels of your hateful throats ;
And, with the pains my rigour shall inflict, no

111 make ye roar, that earth may echo forth
The far-resounding torments ye sustain :
As when an herd of lusty Cymbrian bulls
Run mourning round about the females' miss,^
And, stung with fury of their following.
Fill all the air with troublous bellowing ;
I will, with engines never exercised,
Conquer, sack, and utterly consume
Your cities and your golden palaces ;
And, with the flames that beat against the clouds, lao
Incense the heavens, and make the stars to melt,
As if they were the tears of Mahomet,
For hot consumption of his country's pride ;
And, till by vision or by speech I hear

1 8to. " ezpeU."— 4to. *' expel" I have adopted Dyce's correction.
' Loss, absence.

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1 74 l^f^ Second Part of [act iv.

Immortal Jove say " Cease, my Tamburlaine,"

I will persist, a terror to the world,

Making the meteors (that, like arm^d men,

Are seen to march upon the towers of heaven),

Run tilting round about the firmament,

And break their burning lances in the air, 130

For honour of my wondrous victories.

Come, bring them in to our pavilion. [Exeunt.

SCENE III,

Olympia discovered alone.

Oiym. Distressed Olympia, whose weeping eyes
Since thy arrival here behold no sun,
But closed within the compass of a ^ tent
Hath stained thy cheeks, and made thee look like death,
Devise some means to rid thee of thy life.
Rather than yield to his detested suit,
Whose drift is only to dishonour thee ;
And since this earth, dewed with thy brinish tears,
Affords no herbs whose taste may poison thee,
Nor yet this air, beat often with thy sighs, 10

Contagious smells and vapours to infect thee,
Nor thy close cave a sword to murder thee ;
Let this invention be the instrument

Enter Theridamus.
THer, Well met, Olympia ; I sought thee in my tent,
But when I saw the place obscure and dark,

1 So 4to.— 8vo. " the.*'

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 175

Which with thy beauty thou was wont to light,

Enraged, I ran about the fields for thee,

Supposing amorous Jove had sent his son,

The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence ; ,

But now I find thee, and that fear is past ao

Tell me, Olympia, wilt thou grant my suit ?
Olym. My lord and husband's death, with my sweet
son's,

(With whom I buried all affections

Save grief and sorrow, which torment my heart,)

Forbid my mind to entertain a thought

That tends to love, but meditate on death, 1

A fitter subject for a pensive souL j

Ther, Olympia, pity him, in whom thy looks

Have greater operation and more force

Than Cynthia's in the watery wilderness, 30

For with thy view my joys are at the full, t |

And ebb again as thou departest from me. \

Olym, Ah, pity me, my lord ! and draw your
sword,

Making a passage for my troubled soul.

Which beats against this prison to get out, I

And meet my husband and my loving son. !

Tker, Nothing but still thy husband and thy son !
Leave this, my love, and listen more to me.
Thou Shalt be stately queen of fair Argier ;

And clothed in costly cloth of massy gold, 40 I

Upon the marble turrets of my court

Sit like to Venus in her chair of state, I

Commanding all thy princely eye desires ; I

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1 76 The Second Part of [act iv.

And I will cast off arms to sit with thee.
Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.

Olym, No such discourse is pleasant in mine ears,
But that where every period ends with death,
And every line begins with death again.
I cannot love, to be an emperess.

Ther. Nay, lady, then, if nothing will prevail, 50

I'll use some other means to make ye yield :
Such is the sudden fury of my love,
I must and will be pleased, and you shall yield :
Come to the tent again.

Olym. Stay now, my lord ; and, will ^ you save my
honour,
I'll give your grace a present of such price,
As all the world cannot afford the like.

Thcr. What is it?

Olym, An ointment which a cunning alchymist.
Distilled from the purest balsamum 60

And simplest extracts of all minerals,
In which the essential form of marble stone.
Tempered by science metaphysical,
And spells of magic from the mouths ^ of spirits,
With which if you but 'noint your tender skin,
Nor pistols, sword, nor lance, can pierce your flesh.

Ther, Why, madam, think you to mock me thus
palpably ?

1 So 8vo.— 4to. "Stay, good my lord, if you will"
> So4ta~8va "mother."

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SCENE iih] Tamburlazne the Great. it 7

Olym, To prore it, I will 'noint my naked throat,
Which, when you stab, look on your weapon's point,
And you shall see't rebated ^ with the blow. 70

Ther. Why gave you not your husband some of it,
If you loved him, and it so precious ?

Olym. My purpose was, my lord, to spend it so,
But was prevented by his sudden end ;
And for a present, easy proof thereof.
That I dissemble not, try it on me.

Ther, I will, Olympia, and will * keep it for
The richest present of this eastern world.

[She anoints her throat^

Olynu Now stab, my lord, and mark your weapon's
point.
That will be blunted if the blow be great 80

Ther, Here then, Olympia. {Stabs her.

What, have I slain her 1 Villain, stab thyself;
Cut ofT this arm that murdered thy love.
In whom the leambd Rabbis of this age
Might find as many wondrous miracles
As in the Theoria of the world
Now hell is fairer than Elysium ; ^
A greater lamp than that bright eye of heaven,

1 Blunted.

« So 4to.— 8vo. "and /will."

* Collier pointed out that this incident was taken from Ariosto's Orl.
Fur,^ Book xxix., "where Isabella, to save herself from the lawless pas-
sion of Rodomont, anoints her neck with a decoction of herbs which
she pretends will render it invulnerable : she then presents her throat
to the pagan, who, believing her assertion, aims a blow and strikes off
her head,"— -£«^/. Dram, Poetry, iii. 119 (old ed.)

* 8vo. ♦* Elisian.*'— 4to. "EUaan."

VOL. I. M

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178 The Second Part of [act iv.

From whence the stars do borrow ^ all their light,

Wanders about the black circumference ; 90

And now the damned souls are free from pain,

For every Fury gazeth on her looks ;

Infernal Dis is courting of my love,

Inventing masks and stately shows for her,

Opening the doors of his rich treasury

To entertain this queen of chastity ;

Whose body shall be tombed with all the pomp

The treasure of my ' kingdom may afibrd.

\EMt, with the body.

SCENE IV.

Enter Tamburlaine drawn in his chariot ' by the Kings
of Trebizond and Soria, with bits in their mouths^
reins in his * left handy and in his right hand a whip
with which he scourgeth them ; Techelles, Theri-
DAMAS, UsuMCASANE, Amyras, Celebinus ; Kings
of Natolia and Jerusalem led by * five or six com-
mon Soldiers.

Tamb, Holla, ye pampered jades of Asia ! ^
What ! can ye draw but twenty miles a day,
And have so proud a chariot at your heels,
And such a coachman as great Tamburlaine,
But from Asphaltis, where I conquered you,

1 So4to. — 8vo. " borrow doa"
« So4to.— 8vo. "thy."

* " In like manner in Lodge's Watmds 0/ Civil War, Sylia enters
in triumph drawn by his captives."— ^fvir^A/a«.

* So 4to.— 8va *• their."

* So 4ta--8vo. " led by with five."

* This line was parodied by a host of writeis.

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^

SCENE IV.] Tatnburlaine the Great. 1 79

To Byron here, where thus I honour you !

The horse that guide the golden eye of Heaven,

And blow the morning from their nosterils,^

Making their fiery gait above the clouds,

Are not so honoured in their governor, 10

As you, ye slaves, in mighty Tamburlaine.

The headstrong jades of Thrace Alcides tamed,

That King Egeus fed with human flesh,

And made so wanton that they knew their strengths.

Were not subdued with valour more divine

Than you by this unconquered arm of mine.

To make you fierce, and fit my appetite,

You shall be fed with flesh as raw as blood, '

And drink in pails the strongest muscadel ;

If you can live with it, then live, and draw 20

My chariot swifter than the racking ^ clouds ;

If not, then die like beasts, and fit for naught

But perches for the black and fatal ravens.

Thus am I right the scourge of highest Jove ;

And see the figure of my dignity

By which I hold my name and majesty I

Amy. Let me have coach, my lord, that I may ride,
And thus be drawn with ^ these two idle kings.

Tamb, Thy youth forbids such ease, my kingly boy ;

' So 4to. — 8vo. " nostrils." Dyce compares Virgil, ^n, xii. 114 : —
** Cum prixnum alto se gorgite toUunt
Solis equi lucemque elatis navihis efflant^'^
* Scadding ; driven by the wind.

» So 8vo. (Cf. V. I, 1. 7a. •* Drawn «r*M.thesc kings.")— Modern
editors, foUowing the 4to., give "by."

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1 80 The Second Part of [act iv.

They shall to-morrow draw my chariot, 30

While these their fellow-kings may be refreshed.

Ore O thou that sway'st the region under earth.
And art a king as absolute as JoTe,
Come as thou didst in fruitful Sicily,
Surveying all the glories of the land,
And as thou took'st the fair Proserpina,
Joying the fruit of Ceres' garden-plot,*
For love, for honour, and to noake her queen.
So for just hate, for shame, and to subdue
This proud contemner of thy dreadful power, 40

Come once in fury and survey his pride.
Haling him headlong to the lowest helL

Ther, Your majesty must get some bits for these,
To bridle their contemptuous, cursing tongues.
That, like unruly, never-broken jades,
Break through the hedges of their hateful mouths,
And pass their fixbd bounds exceedingly.

Tech, Nay, we will break the hedges of their mouths,
And pull their kicking colts ^ out of their pastures.

Usum, Your majesty already hath devised 50

A mean, as fit as may be, to restrain
These coltish coach-horse tongues from blasphemy.

Cd. How like you that, sir king? why speak ye not?
Jer, Ah, cruel brat, sprung from a tyrant's loins I
How like his cursfed father he begins
To practise taunts and bitter tyraimies !

Tamb, I, Turk, I tell thee, this same boy is he

1 So4to.— 8vo. "gaidedplot."
> Colt's-teeth.

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SCENE IV.] Tamburlaine the Great. i8i

That must (advanced in higher pomp than this)

Rifle the kingdoms I shall leave unsacked,

If Jove, esteeming me too good for earth, 60

Raise me to match the fair Aldeboran,

Above the threefold astracism of heaven,

Before I conquer all the triple world.

Now, fetch me out the Turkish concubines ;

I will prefer them for the funeral

They have bestowed on my abortive son.

\71u Concubines are brmight in.
Where are my common soldiers now, that fought
So lion-like upon Asphaltis' plains ?

Sold, Here, my lord.

Tamb, Hold ye, tall soldiers, take ye queens apiece —
I mean such queens as were king's concubines — 71

Take them; divide them, and their ^ jewels too.
And let them equally serve all your turns.

Sold, We thank you.

Tamb, Brawl not, I warn you, for your lechery :
For every man that so offends shall die.

Ore. Injurious tyrant, wilt thou so de&me
The hateful fortunes of thy victory,
To exercise upon such guiltless dames
The violence of thy common soldiers' lust ? 80

Tamb. Live continent ' then, ye slaves, and meet not
me
With troops of harlots at your slothful heels.

1 So 4to.— Omitted in 8vo.
s Old copies "content."

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1 82 The Second Part of (act it.

Ladies, O pity us, my lord, and save our honours.

Tamb. Are ye not gone, ye yillains, with your spoils ?
\Th^ run away with the ladies,

Jer, O merciless, infernal cruelty I

Tamb, Save your honours I Twere but time indeed,
Lost long before ye knew what honour meant

Ther, It seems they meant to conquer us, my lord,
And make us jesting pageants for their trulls.

Tamb, And now themselves shall make our pageants,
And common soldiers jest with all their trulls. 91

Let them take pleasure soundly in their spoils.
Till we prepare our march to Babylon,
Whither we next make expedition.

Tech, Let us not be idle then, my lord,
But presently be prest to conquer it

Tamb, We will, Techelles. Forward then, ye jades.
Now crouch, ye kings of greatest Asia,
And tremble when ye hear this scourge will come
That whips down cities and controuleth crowns, 100

Adding their wealth and treasure to my store.
The Euxine sea, north to Natolia ;
The Terrene, west ; the Caspian, north-north-east ;
And on the south, Sinus Arabicus ;
Shall all be loaden with the martial spoils
We will convey with us to Persia.
Then shall my native city, Samarcanda,
And crystal waves of fresh Jaertis' stream.
The pride and beauty of her princely seat.
Be famous through the furthest^ continents, no

1 So4to.— «vo. "furthiest**

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SCENE IV.] Tamburlaine the Great 183

For there my palace-royal shall be placed,
Whose shining turrets shall dismay the heavens,
And cast the fame of Ilion's tower to helL
Thorough the streets with troops of conquered

kings,
ril ride in golden armour like the sun ;
And in my helm a triple plume shall spring,
Spangled with diamonds, dancing in the air,
To note me emperor of the threefold world.
Like ^ to an almond tree y-mounted high
Upon the lofty and celestial mount 120

Of ever-green ^ Selinus quaintly decked
With blooms more white than Erycina's ^ brows,*
^Vhose tender blossoms tremble every one.
At every little breath through heaven is blown.
Then in my coach, like Saturn's royal son.
Mounted ^ his shining chariot gilt with fire.
And drawn with princely eagles through the path
Paved with bright crystal and enchased with stars,

^ Lines 120-125 are taken (as previous editoxs have noticed) from the
Faerie Queene, i. 7 (stanza 32). Marlowe must have seen the passage
of Spenser in MS.

> 8vo. *'euery greene."— -4to. "eueriegreene."

* Old copies •* Hericinas."

* So4to.— 8vo. "bowes."

* Broughton compares Locrine, iiL 5 :—

" Now sit I like the mighty god of war,
Mounted his chariot drawn with mighty bulls."

Dyce puts a comma after mounted, and perhaps he is right. For
*' chariot '* the old copies read "chariots." (Perhaps the author wrote
*' chariote.'* Final e is frequently mistaken for s, and final s for e. )

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1 84 Tamburlaine tke Great. [act nr.

When all the gods stand gazing at his pomp,

So will I ride through Samarcanda streets, 130

Until my soul, dissevered from this flesh,

Shall mount the milk-white way, and meet him there.

To Babylon, my lords ; to Babylon. \Excunt,

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( 185 )

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE I.

Enter the Governor ^Babylon, Maximus, and others
upon the walls.

Gov. What saith Maximus ?

Max. My lord, the breach the enemy hath made
Gives such assurance of our overthrow
That little hope is left to save our lives,
Or hold our city from the conqueror's hands.
Then hang our flags, my lord, of humble truce,
And satisfy the people's general prayers,
That Tamburlaine's Intolerable wrath
May be suppressed by our submission.

Gov. Villain, respects thou ^ more thy slavish life lo
Than honour of thy country or thy name ?
Are not my life and state as dear to me,
The city, and my native country's weal.
As anything of price with thy conceit ?
Have we not hope, for all our battered walls,

1 So the old copies. " Respects tboa " is good Elizabethan English.

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1 86 The Second Part of (act v.

To live secure and keep his forces out,

When this our famous lake of Limnasphaltis

Makes walls afresh with everything that falls

Into the liquid substance of his stream,

More strong than are the gates of death or hell ? 20

What faintness should dismay our courages

When we are thus defenced against our foes,

And have no terror but his threatening looks.

Enter a Citizen, who kneels to the Governor.

at. My lord, if ever you did deed of ruth.
And now will work a refuge for our lives,
Offer submission, hang up flags of truce.
That Tamburlaine may pity our distress.
And use us like a loving conqueror.
Though this be held his last day's dreadful siege,
Wherein he spareth neither man nor child, 30

Yet are there Christians of Georgia here.
Whose state was ever pitied and relieved,
Would get his pardon if your grace would send.

Gov, How is my soul environed [with cares ! ]
And this eternized city, Babylon,
Filled with a pack of faint-heart fugitives
That thus entreat their shame and servitude !

Enter another Citizen.

at My lord, if ever you will win our hearts,
Yield up the town and ^ save our wives and children ;

1 So 4ta— Omitted ta 8va

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SCENE I.] Tamburlaine the Great. 187

For I will cast myself from off these walls 40

Or die some death of quickest violence
Before I bide the wrath of Tamburlaine.

Gov. Villains, cowards, traitors to our state !
Fall to the earth and pierce the pit of hell,
That legions of tormenting spirits may vex
Your slavish bosoms with continual pains !
I care not, nor the town will ever yield,
As long as any life is in my breast

Enter Theridamas, Techblles, and Soldiers without
the walls,

Ther, Thou desperate governor of Babylon,
To save thy life, and us a little labour, 50

Yield speedily the city to our hands,
Or else be sure thou shalt be forced with pains.
More exquisite than ever traitor felt

Gov. Tyrant ! I turn the traitor in thy throat.
And will defend it in despite of thee. —
Call up the soldiers to defend these walls I

Tech. Yield, foolish governor ; we offer more
Than ever yet we did to such proud slaves
As durst resist us till our third day's siege.
Thou seest us prest to give the last assault, 60

And that shall bide no more regard of parle.^

Gov. Assault and spare not ; we will never yield.

\Alarms: and they scale the walls.

JSnter Tamburlaine {drawn in his chariot by the Kings
1 Old copies "parlie."

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1 88 The Second Part of [act v.

of Trebizond a$id Soria), Usumcasanx, Amyras,
and Celebinus; the twospare^ Kings of^zXd&z, and
Jerusalem; and others.

Tamb. The stately buildings of fair Babylon,
Whose lofty pillars, higher than the clouds,
Were wont to guide the seaman in the deep,
Being carried thither by the cannon's force,
Now fill the mouth of Limnasphaltis' lake
And make a bridge unto the battered walls.
Where Belus, Ninus, and great Alexander
Have rode in triumph, triumphs Tamburlaine, 70

Whose chariot wheels have burst the Assyrians' bones
Drawn with these kings on heaps of carcases.
Now in the place where fair Semiramis,
Courted by kings and peers of Asia,
Hath trod the measures,^ do my soldiers march ;
And in the streets, where brave Assyrian dames
Have rid in pomp like rich Satumia,
With furious words and frowning visages
My horsemen brandish their unruly blades.

J?^tf»/^ Theridamas a;i//TECH£LLES, bringing in the
Governor of Babylon.

Who have ye there, my lords ? 80

Ther. The sturdy governor of Babylon,

^ I,€, the kings out of harness.

> A stately dance. Cf. Much Ado, ii. z :~'' The first suit is hot and
hasty like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical ; the wedding mannerly,
modest as a measure, full of state and ancientry."

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scENxi.] Tamburlaine the Great. 189

That made us all the labour for the town,

And used such slender reckoning of your majesty.

Tomb, Go» bind the villain ; he shall hang in chains
Upon the ruins of this conquered town.
Sirrah, the view of our vermilion tents,
(Which threatened more than if the region
Next underneath the element of fire
Were full of comets and of blazing stars,
Whose flaming trains should reach down to the earth,) 90
Could not aflright you ; no, nor I myself.
The wrathful messenger of mighty Jove,
That with his sword hath quailed all earthly kings.
Could not persuade you to submission,
But still the ports were shut ; villain I I say.
Should I but touch the rusty gates of hell.
The triple-headed Cerberus would howl
And wake black Jove to crouch and kneel to me ;
But I have sent volleys of shot to you,
Yet could not enter till the breach was made. 100

Gov. Nor, if my body could have stopt the breach,
Should'st thou have entered, cruel Tamburlaine.
Tis not thy bloody tents can make me yield,
Nor yet thyself, the anger of the Highest,
For though thy cannon shook the city walls,
My heart did never quake, or courage faint

Tamb, Well, now 111 make it quake ; go draw him^ up,
Hang him in* chains upon the city walls.
And let my soldiers shoot the slave to death.

1 So 4to.— Svo. ••it." « Old copies " vp in.»'

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1 90 The Second Part of [act v.

Gov, Vile monster ! bom of some infernal hag, no
And sent from hell to tyrannise on earth,
Do all thy worst ; nor death, nor Tamburlaine,
Torture, nor pain, can daunt my dreadless mind.

Tamb, Up with him, then ; his body shall be scared

Gov, But, Tamburlaine, in Limnasphaltis' lake
There lies more gold than Babylon is worth,
Which, when the city was besieged, I hid.
Save but my life and I will give it thee.

Tamb, Then for all your valour you would save your
life?
Whereabout lies it ? 120

Gov, Under a hollow bank, right opposite
Against the western gate of Babylon.

Tamb, Go thither, some of you, and take his
gold;—
The rest — forward with execution !
Away with him hence, let him speak no more.
I think I make your courage something quail
When this is done, we'll march from Babylon,
And make our greatest haste to Persia.

\They hang up the Governor in chains.
These jades are broken-winded and half tired.
Unharness them, and let me have fresh horse. 130

[Aitauiants unharness the Kings ^Trebizond and
Soria.

So, now their best is done to honour me,
Take them and hang them both up presently.

Trd>, Vild tyrant ! barbarous bloody Tamburlaine !

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SCENE!.] Tamburlaine the Great. 191

Tamb. Take them away, Theridamas ; see them de-
spatched

Ther, I will, my lord

\Exit with the Kings ofTithitond, and Soria.

Tamb. Come, Asian viceroys ; to your tasks awhile.
And take such fortune as your fellows felt

Ore. First let thy Scythian horse tear both our limbs,
Rather than we should draw thy chariot.
And like base slaves abject our princely minds 140

To vile and ignominious servitude.

Jer. Rather lend me thy weapon, Tamburlaine,
That I may sheathe it in this breast of mine.
A thousand deaths could not torment our hearts
More than the thought of this doth vex our souls.

Amy. They will talk still, my lord, if you don't bridle
them.

Tamb. Bridle them, and let me to my coach.

[They bridle them.

Amy. See now, my lord, how brave the captain hangs.

Tamb. 'Tis brave indeed, my boy ; well done.
Shoot first, my lord, and then the rest shall follow. 150

Ther. Then have at him to begin withal.

[Theridamas shoots.

Gov. Yet save my life, and let this wound appease
The mortal fury of great Tamburlaine.

Tamb. No, though Asphaltis' lake were liquid gold.
And offered me as ransom for thy life,
Yet should'st thou die. Shoot at him all at once.

[They shoot.
So, now he hangs like Bagdet's governor,

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192 The Second Part of [act v.

Having as many bullets in his flesh

As there be breaches in her battered wall.

Go now, and bind the burghers hand and foot, 160

And cast them headlong in the city's lake.

Tartars and Persians shall inhabit there,

And to command the city, I will build

A [lofty] citadel that all Africa,

Which hath been subject to the Persian king,

Shall pay me tribute for in Babylon.

Tech, What shall be done with their wives and chiklren,
my lord ?

Tarnb. Techelles, drown them all, man, woman, and
child.
Leave not a Babylonian in the town.

TecK I will about it straight Come, soldiers. 170

\Exii with Soldiers,

Tamb, Now, Casane, whereas the Turkish Alcoran,
And all the heaps of superstitious books
Found in the temples of that Mahomet,
Whom I have thought a god ? They shall be burnt

Usum, Here they are, my lord.

Tamb. Well said ; let there be a fire presently.
In vain, I see, men worship Mahomet :
My sword hath sent millions of Turks to hell,
Slain all his priests, his kinsmen, and his friends,
And yet I live untouched by Mahomet 180

There is a God, full of revenging wrath,
From whom the thunder and the lightning breaks,
Whose scourge I am, and him will I obey :
So, Casane, fling them in the fire.

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sciNii.] Tamburlaine the Great. 193

Now, Mahomet, if thou have any power, '

Come down thyself and work a miracle :
Thou art not worthy to be worshipped,
That suffers flame of fire to bum the writ
Wherein the sum of thy religion rests.
Why send*st thou not a furious whirlwind down 190

To blow thy Alcoran up to thy throne,
Where men report thou sit'st by God himself?
Or vengeance on the head of Tamburlaine
That shakes his sword against thy majesty,
And spurns the abstracts of thy foolish laws ?
Well, soldiers, Mahomet remains in hell ;
He cannot hear the voice of Tamburlaine ;
Seek out another Godhead to adore.
The God that sits in heaven, if any God \
For he is God alone, and none but he. 200

Re-^nier Techelles.

Tech. I have fulfilled your highness' will, my lord.
Thousands of men, drowned in Asphaltis' lake,
Have made the waters swell above the banks,
And fishes, fed^ by human carcases,
Amazed, swim up and down upon the waves,
As when they swallow assafoetida,
Which makes them fleet aloft and gape for air.

Tamb. Well then, my friendly lords, what more remains,
But that we leave sufficient garrison,
And presently depart to Persia 210

To triumph after all our victories ?

1 Old copies "feede."
VOL. I. N

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1 94 The Second Part of [act ▼.

Ther. I, good my lord ; let us in haste to Persia,
And let this captain be removed the walls
To some high hill about the city here.

Tatnb, Let it be so ; about it, soldiers ;
But stay ; I feel myself distempered suddenly.

Tech, What is it dares distemper Tamburlaine?

Tatnb, Something, Techelles ; but I know not what —
But forth, ye vassals ! whatsoe'er it be.
Sickness or death can never conquer me. \Exeunt. 220

SCENE 11.

JSnter Callapine, fAe King <^ Amasia, and Soldiers^
with drums and trumpets.

Call King of Amasia, now our mighty host
Marcheth in Asia Major where the streams
Of Euphrates and Tigris swiftly run,
And here may we behold great Babylon
Circled about with Limnasphaltis' lake
Where Tamburlaine with all his army lies,
Which being faint and weary with the siege.
We may lie ready to encounter him
Before his host be full from Babylon,
And so revenge our latest grievous loss, 10

If God or Mahomet send any aid.

Ama, Doubt not, my lord, but we shall conquer him.
The monster that hath drunk a sea of blood.
And yet gapes still for more to quench his thirst,
Oxir Turkish swords shall headlong send to hell.

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SCENE iL] Tamburlaine the Great. 195

And that vile carcase drawn by warlike kings
The fowls shall eat ; for never sepulchre
Shall grace this base-born tyrant Tamburlaine.

Call, When I record my parents' slavish life,
Their cruel death, mine own captivity, 20

My viceroys' bondage under Tamburlaine,
Methinks I could sustain a thousand deaths
To be revenged of all his villany.
Ah, sacred Mahomet ! thou that hast seen
Millions of Turks perish by Tamburlaine,
Kingdoms made waste, brave cities sacked and burnt,
And but one host is left to honour thee,
Aid thy obedient servant, Callapine,
And make him after all these overthrows
To triumph over cursfed Tamburlaine. 30

Atna. Fear not, my lord ; I see great Mahomet
Clothbd in purple clouds, and on his head
A chaplet brighter than Apollo's crown,
Marching about the air with armM men
To join with you against this Tamburlaine.
RenowmM general, mighty Callapine,
Though God himself and holy Mahomet
Should come in person to resist your power,
Yet might your mighty host encounter all.
And pull proud Tamburlaine upon his knees 40

To sue for mercy at your highness' feet.

Call Captain, the force of Tamburlaine is great.
His fortune greater, and the victories
Wherewith he hath so sore dismayed the world
Are greatest to discourage all our drifts ;

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1 96 The Second Part of [act v.

Yet when the pride of Cynthia is at full.

She wanes again, and so shall his, I hope;

For we have here the chief selected men

Of twenty several kingdoms at the least ;

Nor ploughman, priest, nor merchant, stays at home : 50

All Turkey is in arms with CaUapine ;

And never will we sunder camps and arms

Before himself or his be conquer^

This is the time that must eternise me

For conquering the tyrant of the world.

Come, soldiers, let us lie in wait for him,

And if we find him absent from his camp.

Or that it be rejoined again at full,

Assail it and be sure of victory. \Exeunt,

SCENE III.

Enter Theridamas, Techelles, and Usumcasane.

Ther, Weep, heavens, and vanish into^liquid tears !
Fall, stars that govern his nativity,
And summon all the shining lamps of heaven
To cast their bootless fires to the earth.
And shed their feeble influence in the air.
Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds,
For Hell and Darkness pitch their pitchy tents,
And Death with armies of Qmmerian spirits
Gives battle 'gainst the heart of Tamburlaine.
Now in defiance of that wonted love lo

Your sacred virtues poured upon his throne

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scENBiii.] Tamburlaine the Great 197

And made his state an honour to the heavens,
These cowards invisible ^ assail his soul,
And threaten conquest on our sovereign \
But if he die your glories are disgraced ;
Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is
placed.

Tech. O then, ye powers that sway eternal seats
And guide this massy substance of the earth,
If you retain desert of holiness

As your supreme estates instruct our thoughts, 20

Be not inconstant, careless of your fame, —
Bear not the burthen of your enemies' joys
Triumphing in his fall whom you advanced,
But as his birth, life, health, and majesty
Were strangely blest and governed by heaven.
So honour, heaven, (till heaven dissolved be)
His birth, his life, his health, and majesty !

Usum, Blush, heaven, to lose the honour of thy
name!
To see thy footstool set upon thy head !
And let no baseness in thy haughty breast 30

Sustain a shame of such inexcellence,^
To see the devils mount in angels' thrones,
And angels dive into the pools of hell !
And though they think their painful date is out.
And that their power is puissant as Jove's,
Which makes them manage arms against thy state,
Yet make them feel the strength of Tamburlaine,

1 Bvo. "invincible.*'— 4to. "invisibly." The reading in the text is
Cunningham's.
» So4to. — 8vo. "incxcellencie."

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1 98 The Second Part of [act v

(Thy instrument and note of majesty,)

Is greater far than they can thus subdue :

For if he die thy glory is disgraced ; 40

Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.

Enter Tamburlaine (drawn in his chariot as before\
Amyras, Celebinus, tf«i/ Physician.

Tamb. What daring god torments my body thus,
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine ?
Shall sickness prove me now to be a man,
That have been termed the terror of the world ?
Techelles and the rest, come, take your swords,
And threaten him whose hand afflicts my souL
Come, let us march against the powers of heaven.
And set black streamers in the firmament,
To signify the slaughter of the gods. 50

Ah, friends, what shall I do ? I cannot stand
Come carry me to war against the gods
That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine.

Ther. Ah, good my lord, leave these impatient words.
Which add much danger to your malady.

Tamb. Why, shall I sit and languish in this pain ?
No, strike the drums, and in revenge of this,
Come, let us charge our spears and pierce his breast.
Whose shoulders bear the axis of the world.
That, if I perish, heaven and earth may fade. 60

Theridamas, haste to the court of Jove,
Will him to send Apollo hither straight.
To cure me, or I'll fetch him down myself.

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scBNiiiL Tamburlaine the Great. 199

Tedi. Sit still, my gracious lord ; this grief will cease,
And cannot last, it is so violent

Tamb. Not last, Techelles ?— No I for I shall die.
See, where my slave, the ugly monster, Death,
Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for fear,
Stands aiming at me with his murdering dart,
Who flies away at every glance I give, 70

And, when I look away, comes stealing on.
Villain, away, and hie thee to the field i
I and mine army come to load thy back
With souls of thousand mangled carcases.
Look, where he goes ; but see, he comes again.
Because I stay : Techelles, let us march

And weary Death with bearing souls to helL
Phy. Pleaseth your majesty to drink this potion,

Which will abate the fury of your fit.

And cause some milder spirits govern you. 80

Tamb. Tell me what think you of my sickness now ?
Fhy. I viewed your urine, and the hypostasis ^

Thick and obscure, doth make your danger great ;

Your veins are full of accidental heat,

Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried.

The hmnidum and calor, which some hold

Is not a parcel of the elements,

But of a substance more divine and pure,

Is almost clean extinguished and spent ;

Which, being the cause of life, imports your death. 90

Besides, my lord, this day is critical,

1 Old copies " Hipostates.**

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200 The Second Part of [act v.

Dangerous to those whose crisis is as yours \
Your artiers, which alongst the veins convey
The lively spirits which the heart engenders,
Are parched and void of spirits, that the soul,
Wanting those organons by which it moves.
Cannot endure, by argument of art
Yet, if your majesty may escape this day,
No doubt but you shall soon recover all.

Tamb. Then will I comfort all my vital parts, loo

And live, in spite of death, above a day.

[Alarums within.

Enter Messenger.

Mes, My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled from
your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh army, and
hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us
presently. 1

Tamb, See, my physicians now, how Jove hath sent
A present medicine to recure my pain.
My looks shall make them fly, and might I follow,
There should not one of all the villain's power
Live to give offer of another fight. no

Usum, I joy, my lord, your highness is so strong,
That can endure so well your royal presence,
Which only will dismay the enemy.

1 Perhaps the Messeoger's speech should have been printed as Tezse.
Only a very slight alteration is needed ^—

*'My loxd, young Callapine, that lately fled
Your majesty, hath gathered a fresh army.
And hearing of your absence in the field,
Oifecs to set upon us presently.**

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SCENE III.] Tamburlaine the Great. 201

Tamb, I know it will, Casane. Draw, you slaves ;
In spite of death, I will go show my face.

Alarums, — Tamburlaine goes outy and comes in
with ik& rest

Tamb, Thus are the villain^ cowards fled for
fear,
Like summer vapours vanished by the sun ;
And could I but awhile pursue the field,
That Callapine should be my slave again.
But I perceive my martial strength is spent. 120

In vain I strive and rail against those powers,
That mean to invest me in a higher throne,
As much too high for this disdainful earth.
Give me a map ; then let me see how much
Is left for me to conquer all the world,
That these, my boys, may finish all my wants.

\Pne brings a map*
Here I began to march towards Persia,
Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea,
And thence unto Bithynia, where I took
The Turk and his great empress prisoners. 130

Thence marched I into Egypt and Arabia,
And here, not far from Alexandria,
Whereas the Terrene and the Red Sea meet,
Being distant less than full a hundred leagues,
I meant to cut a channel to them both,
That men might quickly sail to India.^

1 Old copies " ▼fllaines." The reading in the text is Dyce's.
s An anticipation of the Sues Canal !

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202 The Second Part of [act v.

From thence to Nubia near Borno lake,
And so along the ^Ethiopian sea,
Cutting the Tropic line of Capricorn,
I conquered all as far as Zanzibar. 140

Then, by the northern part of Africa,
I came at last to Grsecia, and from thence
To Asia, where I stay against my will ;
Which is from Scythia, where I first began,
Backward[s] and forwards near five thousand leagues.
Look here, my boys ; see what a world of ground
Lies westward from the midst of Cancer's line.
Unto the rising of this earthly globe ;
Whereas the sun, declining from our sight,
Begins the day with our Antipodes \ 150

And shall I die, and this unconquer^d ?
Lo, here, my sons, are all the golden mines,
Inestimable drugs and precious stones,
More worth than Asia and the world beside ;
And from the Antarctic Pole eastward behold
As much more land, which never was descried,
Wherein are rocks of pearl that shine as bright
As all the lamps that beautify the sky !
And shall I die, and this unconquerfed ?
Here, lovely boys ; what death forbids my life, 160

That let your lives command in spite of death.
Amy. Alas, my lord, how should our bleeding
hearts,
Wounded and broken with your highness' grief,
Retain a thought of joy or spark of life ?

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SCENE iiL] Tatnburlaine the Great. 203

Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects,^
Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh.

Cd, Your pains do pierce our souls \ no hope survives,
For by your life we entertain our lives.

Tatfib, But, sons, this subject, not of force enough
To hold the fiery spirit it contains, 170

Must part, imparting his impressions
By equal portions into both your breasts ;
My flesh, divided in your precious shapes,
Shall still retain my spirit, though I die,
And live in all your seeds immortally.
Then now remove me, that I may resign
My place and proper title to my son.
First, take my scourge and my imperial crown,
And mount my royal chariot of estate,
That I may see thee crowned before I die. 180

Help me, my lords, to make my last remove.

\Thiy lift him dawn,

Ther. A woful change, my lords; that daunts oiir
thoughts.
More than the ruin of our proper souls I

Tamb. Sit up, my son, [and] let me see how well
Thou wilt become thy father's majesty.

Amy. With what a flinty bosom should I joy
The breath of life and burthen of my soul,
If not resolved into resolved pains,

1 Collier proposed "substance ; " but, as Dyce observed, " subject "
occurs immediately below, and in iv. a (1. 37), —

" A form not meet to give that subject essence."

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204 The Second Part of [act v.

My body's mortified lineaments ^

Should exercise the motions of my heart, 190

Pierced with the joy of any dignity !

O father I if the unrelenting ears

Of death and hell be shut against my prayers.

And that the spiteful influence of Heaven,

Deny my soul fruition of her joy ;

How should I step, or stir my hatehil feet

Against the inward powers of my heart.

Leading a life that only strives to die,

And plead ^ in vain unpleasing sovereignty?

Tamb, Let not thy love exceed thine honour, 200
son.
Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity
That nobly must admit necessity.
Sit up, my boy, and with those silken reins
Bridle the steelfed stomachs of those jades.

Ther. My lord, you must obey his majesty.
Since fate commands and proud necessity.

Amy, Heavens witness me with what a broken heart
And damnbd * spirit I ascend this seat.
And send my soul, before my father die,
His anguish and his bumbg agony ! aio

\They crown Amyras.

Tamb, Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate ;

1 The text seems very corrupt For '* lineaments" the 4(0. reads
"laments."

* There is little sense as the line stands. I suspect the true reading
is "AxA pleased,**

* "Doomed, sorrowful."— Z>y^

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SCENE m.] Tamburlaine the Great. 205

Let it be placed by this my fatal chair,
And serve as parcel of my funeral.

Usum, Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease,
Nor may our hearts, all drowned in tears of blood,
Joy any hope of your recovery ?

Tamb, Casane, no ; the monarch of the earth,
And eyeless monster that torments my soul,
Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me,
And therefore still augments his cruelty. 220

Tech, Then let some God oppose his holy power
Against the wrath and tyranny of Death,
That his tear-thirsty and unquenchM hate
May be upon himself reverberate \

\They bring in the hearse ^^/'Zenocrate.

Tanib, Now eyes enjoy your latest benefit,
And when my soul hath virtue of your sight.
Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold,
And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.
So reign, my son ; scourge and controul those slaves.
Guiding thy chariot with thy father's hand. 230

As precious 'is the charge thou undertakest
As that which Clymene's brain-sick son did guide,
When wandering Phoebe's ivory cheeks were scorched,
And all the earth, like i£tna, breathing fire ;
Be warned by him, then ; learn with awful eye
To sway a throne as dangerous as his ;
For if thy body thrive not full of thoughts
As pure and fiery as Phyteus'^ beams,

1 Dyce conjectoKs that " Pbyteus" is a misprint for " Pythius."

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2o6 Tamburlaine the Great. [act v.

The nature of these proud rebelling jades

Will take occasion by the slenderest hair, 240

And draw thee piecemeal like Hippolitus,

Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian clifts.^

The nature of thy chariot will not bear

A guide of baser temper than myself.

More than Heaven's coach the pride of Phaeton.

Farewell, my boys ; my dearest friends farewell !

My body feels, my soul doth weep to see

Your sweet desires deprived my company.

For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.

\He dies.
Amy. Meet heaven and earth, and here let all things
end, 250

For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,
And Heaven consumed his choicest living fire.
Let Earth and Heaven his timeless ^ death deplore,
For both their worths will equal him no more.

1 So the 8vo. Cf. Greene (in OrU Fkr.),-^

** The sands of Tagus, all of bornish'd gold»
Made Thetis never prouder on the cli/is.'*
Shelley uses the form in Areikusa, —

" And up through the rifts
Of the Dorian f/^."
Dyce prints clifi.
* Untimelj.

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THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF
DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

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The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus was entered on the Stationers' Books
Jaooary 7, 1600-1, but the 4to. of 1604 is the earliest edition yet dis-
covered. A copy (probably unique) of this edition is in the Bodleian
library. The title is :-- Th< Tragicall History of D, Faustus. As it
kath bene Acted by the Right Honorable the Earle of Nottingham his
seruants. Written by Ch, Marl L4mdonPrintedbyV,S. for Thomas
Bushell 1604. The text of ed. 1604 was first printed by Dyce, and
more recently the precious 4ta has been inspected by Professor A. W.
Ward, who published an edition of Faustus in 187S. A second 4to.,
of which there is a unique copy in the town library of Hamburg,
appeared in 1609 with the following title : — The TragicaU History of
the horrible Life and death of Doctor Faustus, Written by Ch. Marl.
Imputed at London by G, E, for John Wright and are to be sold at
Christ-church gate, 1609. This edition agrees in almost every par-
ticular with the preceding. Its readings are reported in Wagner's
edition (1877). The third 4to., which contains some scenes wholly
re-written and others printed for the first time, was published in
1616 with the following title i—The Tragicall Hiitory of the Life and
Death of Doctor Faustus, Writtin by Ch, Marl London, Printed for
John Wright t and are to be sold at his shop without Newgate, at the
signe of the Bible, 1616. In the Introduction I have discussed fiilly
the origin of these changes and additions. Other 4105. agreeing in
the main with ed. 1616 appeared in 1620, 1624, and 1631. In 1663
the play was issued once more in 4to. (with a very corrupt text).

I have followed the text of the first 4to., recording the reading of
the later 4tos. where it seemed necessary. In all cases where I have
adopted a later reading, the text of the editio princeps is given in a
footnote. I have printed in an Appendix the scenes that were re-cast
or added in ed. 1616 ; but where the changes and additions are not
extensive, they are given in the footnotes. As Dr, Faustus is a
series of dramatic scenes rather than a r^ular drama, I have made a
division merely into scenes — ^not into acts and scenes. The same
arrangement has been adopted in Professor Ward's edition.
VOI-. I. O

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PERSONS REPRESENTED.

The Pope.

Cardinal of Lorraine.
Emperor of Germany.
Duke of Vanholt,
Faustus.

Wagner, Servant to Faustus.
Clown.
Robin.
Ralph.

Vintner, Horse-Conrser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars,
Friars, and Attendants.

Duchess of Vanholt.

Lucifer.

Belzebub.

Mephistophilis.

Good AngeL

Evil AngeL

The Seven Deadly Sins.

Devils.

The Spirits representiftg Alexander the Great and

hts ParamouTi and Helen of Troy.
Chorus.

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THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF
DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

Enter Chorus.

Chorus. Not marching now in fields of Trasymene,
Where Mars did mate ^ the Carthaginians ;
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,
In Courts of Kings where state is overturned ;
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt ^ his ' heavenly verse :
Only this, gentlemen, — we must perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad ;
To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,
And speak for Faustus m his infancy. lo

Now is he bom, his parents base of stock,

1 " Mate " ordinarilf means ' ' confound ; " bat the Carthaginians were
▼ictorions in the engagement at Lake Trasimenus. Cunningham says
the meaning must be "married the Carthaginians, espoused their
cause ; " but I strongly doubt whether the word •• mate ** was so used.
It would perhaps be safer to suppose that Marlowe's memory was at
fault Ed. 1616 reads "the warlike Carthagens.'*

9 Seed. 16x6.— Eds. 1604, 1609, "daunt"

* So all the 4tos. Dyoe unnecenarily printed ' ' her. " Ward compares
Shakespeare's Sonnet zxL z-a» —

" So is it not with me as with that Muse
Sdrr^d by a painted beauty to his 1

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212 The Tragical History of [scene i.

In Germany, within a town called Rhodes ;^

Of riper years to Wertenberg* he went,

Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.

So soon he profits in Divinity,

The ' fruitful plot of scholarism graced,

That shortly he was graced with Doctcnr's name,

Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes

In heavenly matters of Theology ;

Till swollen with cunning, of a self conceit, 20

His waxen wings did mount above his reach,

And, melting, Heaven conspired his overthrow ;

For falling to a devilish exercise,

And glutted now* with leamii^s golden gifts,

He surfeits upon cursed Necromancy.

Nothing so sweet as Magic is to him,

Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss.

And this the Man that in his Study sits ! \Eocit2

SCENE I.

Faustus discovered in his Study.

Faust, Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin
To sound the depdi of that thou wilt profess ;

1 I,e, Roda. in the Ducby of Saxe-Altenbui|f.

s Ed. x6z6 " Wittenbeig " (which, of course, is thecotroct fonn).

s This line is omitted in ed. z6i6. *' Is there soeb a word as tekala-
rism f** asks Wagner. Strange that he should bare foigotten Greeners
sneer at the poets, *'who set the end of scholarism in an English blank-
verse I"

* So later eds.— Eds. 1604. 1609. " mow,"

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scEN» I.] Doctor Faustus. 2 1 3

Having commenced be a Divine in show,

Yet level at the end of every Art,

And live and die in Aristotle's works.

Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou hast ravished me,

Bene disserere est finis hgias.

Is to dispute well Logic's chiefest end ?

Affords this Art no greater miracle?

Then read no more, thou hast attained the end ; 10

A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit :

Bid on cat me on"^ farewell, Galen come,

Seeing Ubi desinit Philosopkus ibi incipit Medicus ;

Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,

And be eternised for some wondrous cure.

Sumtnum bonum medidnce saniias^

The end of physic is our body's health.

Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end ?

Is not thy common talk found * Aphorisms ? *

Are not thy bills * hung up as monuments, 20

Whereby whole cities have escaped the Plague,

1 This is my own emendation. Ed. 1604 reads ' ' Oncaymaeon," which I
take to be a corruption of the Aristotelian 69 xal ft^ 6p (" being and not
being"). The later 4t08. give (with various spelling) "CEconomy,"
inserting the word " and " before * * Galen. ^ Bat * ' CEconomy, ** though
retained by all the editors, is nonsense. With the substitution of i foxy
and e for «, my emendation, which gives excellent sense, is a liUral
transcript of the reading of ed. 1604.

s Soed. i6x6w— Eds. 1604, 1609, "sound."

s Medical rules.

4 Prescriptions by which he had worked his cures. Professor Ward
thinks the reference is rather to " the advertisements by which, as a
migratory physician, he had been in the habit of announeing his advent*
and perhaps his system of cures, and which were now ' hung up as
monuments' inperpetuum^

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214 The Tragical History of [sc*ne i.

And thousand desperate maladies been eased ?

Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.

Couldst ^ thou make man to live etemallyy

Or, being dead, raise them to life again,

Then this profession were to be esteemed.

Physic, farewell — Where is Justinian ?

Si una eademque res Ugatur^ duobus^ alter rem alter

valorem rei^ ^c,
A pretty ^ case of paltry legacies I

Exhcereditare jUium non potest pater nisi^ 6*r.* 30

Such is the subject of the Institute
And universal Body of the Law.*
This ^ study fits a mercenary drudge.
Who aims at nothing but external trash ;
Too servile ^ and illiberal for me.
When all is done Divinity is best ;
Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well
Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha 1 Sttpendium^ &*c
The reward of sin is death. That's hard. 59

Sipeccasse negamus faliimur et nulla est in nobis Veritas.
If we say that we have no sm we deceive ourselves, and
there's no truth in us. Why then, belike we must sin,
and so consequently die ;
I, we must die an everlasting death.

1 So cd. 1616.— Eds. 1604, X609, " wouldst"
> Old copies "legatus.''
» Ed. x6i6 "petty."

* So ed. i6aow — Omitted in earlier copies.

» Soed. 1616.— Eds. 1604, 1609. •'Church."

• So ed. 1616.— Ed. 1604 "his.*' (Wagner's note is wrong.)
7 So ed. i6i6.~£d. 1604 '* The deuill."

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SCENE L] Doctor Faustus. 2 1 5

What doctrine call you this, CJu sera ura^

What will be shall be ? Divinity, adieu !

These metaphysics of Magicians

And necromantic books are heavenly :

Lines, circles, scenes,^ letters, and characters :

I, these are those that Faustus most desires. 50

O what a world of profit and delight,

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence

Is promised to the studious artisan !

All things that move between the quiet poles

Shall be at my command : Emperors and Kings

Are but obeyM in their several provinces.

Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds ;

But his dominion that exceeds in this

Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.

A sound Magician is a mighty god : 60

Here, Faustus, tire * thy brains to gain a Deity.

Wagner ! *

Enter Wagner.

Commend me to my dearest friends,
The German Valdes and Cornelius ;
Request them earnestly to visit me.

1 Old spelling for "sar^."
* Dyoe compares Dozme*s first satire, ed. 1633 : —
"And sooner may a gulling weather-spie
By drawing forth heaven's sceanes tell cetainly."
(Later eds. of Donne read *' scheme.'* )
s So ed. 1616.— Eds. 1604, 1609, •' trie."

^ I have adopted the arrangement proposed by Dyce. The old eds.
read:-—

'*^jii!er Wagner.
Wagner, commend." &c.

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2i6 The Tragical History of [scene t.

" Wag. I will, sir. {Exit.

Faust Their conference will be a greater help to me
Than all my labours, plod I ne'er so fest.

Enter Good Angel aTid Evil AngeL
G. Ang, O Faustus ! lay that damnbd book aside,

And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul,

And heap God's heavy wrath upon thy head. 70

Read, read the Scriptures : that is blasphemy.
E. Ang. Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art»

Wherein all Nature's treasure ^ is contained :

Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,

Lord and commander of these elements.

[Exeunt Angels.
Faust How am I glutted with conceit of this !

Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,

Resolve me of all ambiguities,

Perform what desperate enterprise I will ?

rU have them fly to India for gold. So

Ransack the Ocean for orient pearl,

And search all comers of the new-found world

For pleasant fruits and princely delicates ;

rU have them read me strange Philosophy

And tell the secrets of all foreign kings ;

I'll have them wall all Germany with brass,'

And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg,

1 Soeds. 1609, i6x6.~Ed. 1604 "treasurf."
> So Burden addresses Fxiar Bacon in Qfeene's Friar Boom mnd
Friar Bungay : —

** Thou inean*st ere many yeaxs or days be past
To compass England with a worid of brass."

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SCENE L] Doctor Faustus. 2 1 7

ni have them fill the public schools with silk,*

Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad ;

111 levy soldiers with the coin they iM-ing, 90

And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,

And reign sole King of all our Provinces ;

Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war

Than was the fiery keel * at Antwerp's bridge,

ru make my sendle spirits to invent.

En^cr Valdes and Corneuus.

Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,

And make me blest with your sage conference

1 Dyce's correction for " skill ** of the old copies.

* *• During the blockade of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma in 1585,
' They of Antuerpe knowing that the bridge and the Stocadoes were
finished, made a great shippe, to be a meanes to breake all this worke
of the prince of Parmaes : this great shippe was made of masons worke
within, in the manner of a vaulted caue : vpon the hatches there were
layed myll-stones, graue-stones, and others of great weight ; and within
the vault were many barrels of powder, ouer the which there were holes ;
and in them they had put matches, hanging at a thred, the which burn-
ing vntill they came vnto the thred, would fall into the powder, and so
blow vp all. And for that they could not haue any one in this shippe to
conduct it, Lanckhaer, a sea captaine of the Hollanders, being then in
Antuerpe, gaue them counsell to tye a great beame at the end of it^ to
nake it to keepe a straight course in the middest of the streame. In
this sort floated this shippe the fourth of Aprill, vntill that it came vnto
the bridge ; where (within a while after) the powder wrought his effect,
with such violence, as the vessell, and aU that was within it, and vpon
it, flew in pieces, carrying away a part of the Stocado and of the bridge.
The marquesse of Roubay Vicont of Gant, Caspar of Robles lord
of Billy, and the Seignior of Torchies, brother vnto the Sdgnior of
Bonrs, with many others, were presently slaine ; which were tome in
pieces, and dispersed abroad, both vpon the land and vpon the water.'
Giimeston's Gmerall MistorH ^tke Ntikirlands, p. 875, ed. 1609.*'—

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2 1 8 TAe Tragical History of [scene i.

Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,

Know that your words have won me at the last

To practise Magic and conceal&d arts : loo

Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy

That will receive no object, for my head

But ruminates on necromantic skill.

Philosophy is odious and obscure,

Both Law and Physic are for petty wits ;

Divinity ^ is basest of the three.

Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vild :

Tis Magic, Magic that hath ravished me.

Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt ;

And I that have with concise syllogisms ^ no

Gravelled the pastors of the German Church,

And made the flowering pride of Wertenberg

Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits

On sweet Musseus ^ when he came to hell,

Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,

Whose shadows ^ made all Europe honour him.

Vald, Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experi-
ence
Shall make all nations to canbnise us.
As Indian Moors obey their Spanish Lords,

1 Lines 106-7 ^^ omitted in later 4tos.

* Dyce's coirection for "consissylogismes** of eds. 1604, 16091. — Ed.
z6i6 " subtle syllogisms."

» Cf. Virgil. jEn., vi. 667.

4 So eds. 1604. Z609.— Ed. i6z6 *' shadow.*' *' In Book i. of his work
De Occulta PkHoutphia^ Agrippa gives directions for the operations of
scioroancy."— Wcard,

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scEN» L] Doctor Faustus. 2 1 9

So shall the spirits ^ of every element 120

Be always serviceable to us three ;

like lions shall they guard us when we please ;

Like Almain Rutters ^ with their horsemen's staves

Or Lapland giants,' trotting by our sides ;

Sometimes like women or unwedded maids,

Shadowing more beauty in their aiiy brows

Than have the ^ white breasts of the Queen of love :

From ^ Venice shall they drag huge argosies,

And from America the golden fleece

That yearly stuffs old Philip's treasury; 130

If leambd Faustus will be resolute.

Faust Valdes, as resolute am I in this
As thou to live ; therefore object it not.

Com. The miracles that Magic vdU perform
Will make thee vow to study nothing else.
He that is grounded in Astrology,
Enriched with Tongues, well seen in ^ Minerals,
Hath all the principles Magic doth require.
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowm'd,

1 Soed. x6i6.— Eds. i6o4> 1609, "subjects." Perhaps *' subjects'*
is right. Cf. 3 Tamierlaine, iv. 2, L 37 ; v, 3, L 165,

3 See note i, p. 112.

s Cf. 3 Tamberlaine, 1.1:—

" Vast Grantland, compassed with the frozen sea
(Inhabited with tall and sturdy men»
Giants as big as hugy Polypheme)."

4 Soed. Z620 and later 4t08. (Ed. z6i6 "has*^.— Eds. 1604, 1609,
"Than in their " (a repetition from the previous line). Wagner gives
"Tban's in the " — ^which may well be styled UcHo puHdissima,

» Soed. 1616.— Ed. 1604 "For."
Omitted in ed. 1604.

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220 The Tragical History of [scenbi.

And more frequented for this mystery 140

Than heretofore the Delphian Oracle.

The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,

And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks,

I, all the wealth that our forefathers hid

Within the massy entrails of the earth ;

Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want ?

Faust Nothing, Cornelius ! O this cheers my soul !
Come show me some demonstrations magical,
That I may conjure in some bushy ^ grove.
And have these joys in full possession. 150

Void, Then haste thee to some solitary grove
And bear wise Bacon's and Albertus' * works,
The Hebrew Psalter and New Testament ;
And whatsoever else is requisite
We will inform thee ere our conference cease.

Com. Valdes, first let him know the words of art ;
And then, all other ceremonies learned,
Faustus may try his cunning by himself.

VcUd, First 111 instruct thee in the rudiments.
And then wilt thou be perfecter than I. 160

Faust Then come and dine with me, and after meat,
We'll canvas every quiddity thereof;

1 So cd. 1616.— Ed. 1604 'Musty :^ ed, 1609 "UtUe."
* All the old copies read " Albanus." The correction is Mitford's.
*' It is at the same time opea to conjecture whether Marlowe did not,
as DQatser suggests, refer to Pietro d'Abano (Petms de Apono), an
Italian physician and alchemist who narrowly escaped burning by the
Inquisition. He was bom about 1250 and died about 13x6, and wrote
a work called ConcUiator Dijfigrtmtiarwm Pkihaopkontm et Mtdteorum,*'

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scEKB II. ] Doctor Fausius. 221

For ere I sleep I'll try what I can do :

This night I'll coQJure tho' I die therefore. [Exeunt.

SCENE IL
Enter two Scholars.^

ist SchoL I wonder what's become of Faustus that was
wont to make our schools ring with sicprobo f

2nd SchoL That shall we know, for see here comes his
boy.

Enter Wagner.

ist SchoL How now, sirrah ! Where's thy master?

Wag. God in heaven knows.

2nd SchoL Why, dost not thou know?

Wag. Yes, I know. But that follows not.

1st SchoL Go to, sirrah ! leave your jesting, and tell us
where he is. 10

Wag. That follows not necessary by force of argument,
that you, being licentiates, should stand upon : ^ there-
fore acknowledge your error and be attentive.

2nd SchoL^ Why, didst thou not say thou knewest ?

Wag. Have you any witness on't?

1st SchoL Yes, sirrah, I heard you.

Wag. Ask my fellows if I be a thief.

2nd SchoL Well, you will not tell us ?

Wag. Yes, sir, I will tell you ; yet if you were not
dunces, you would never ask me such a question ; for [20

1 Before Faustus' house.

» So ed. 1616.— Ed. 1604 "upon't."

I Lines 14-17 are omitted in ed. i6z6 and later 4tos.

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222 The Tragical History of [scene n.

is not he corpus naiuralef and is not that mchilel then
wherefore should you ask me such a question? But
that I am by nature phlegmatic, slow to wrath, and prone
to lechery (to love, I would say), it were not for you to
come within forty feet of the place of execution, although
I do not doubt to see you both hanged the next sessions.
Thus having triumphed over you, I will set my counte-
nance like a Precisian, and begin to speak thus : — Truly,
my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner, with
Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine, if it could speak, [30
would ^ inform your worships ; and so the Lord bless
you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my
dear brethren.* \ExiL

1st Schol^ Nay, then, I fear he is fallen into that
damned Art, for which they two are infamous through
the world.

2nd Schoi, Were he a stranger, and not allied to me,
yet should I grieve for him. But come, let us go and
inform the Rector, and see if he by his grave counsel
can reclaim him. 40

1 So ed. i6i6.—Ed. 1604 " it would"

2 In ed. 1616 and later 4tos. Uie repetition is not found.
' Ed. 1616 and later 4tos. read : —

•* I Scho, O Faustus I
Then I fear that which I have long suspected.
That thou art fallen into that damned art.
For which they two are infamous through the world.

" a Scho, Were he a stranger not allied to roe,
The danger of his soul would make me mourn ;
But come, let us go and inform the Rector,
It may be his grave counsel may reclaim him.

" I Scko, I fear me nothing will reclaim me now.

'* a Scho, Yet let us see what we can do. [Exeunt,''

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SCENE III.] Doctor Faustus. 223

\st SchoL O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him.
2nd SchoL Yet let us try what we can do. \ExeuniJ

SCENE III.
Enter Faustus to conjure}

Faust Now* that the gloomy shadow of the earth
Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,
Leaps from the antarctic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,
Faustus, begin thine incantations,
And try if devils will obey thy best,
Seeing thou hast prayed and sacrificed to them.
Within this circle is Jehovah's name.
Forward and backward anagrammatised,'
The breviated ^ names of holy saints, zo

Figures of every adjunct to the Heavens,
And characters of signs and erring ^ stars,
By which the spirits are enforced to rise :
Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute.
And try the uttermost magic can perform.

1 The scene is laid in a grove.

* Lines z-4 are repeated verbatim in the first scene of the 1594
Taming of a Shrew,

' Soed. i6id— Eds. 1604, 1609, "and Agramithist,"

* Ed. 1616 "the abbreviated."

* Wandering. Cf. a passage in the Distracted Emperor, v. 3 (a play
first printed from MS. in vol. iiL of my Collection of Old Plays) : —

" Sir, I was friar and derk, and all myself :
None mourned but night, nor funeral tapers bore
But erring stars,**

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324 The Tragical History of (scene hl

Sint mihi Dei Acherontis fropHiif Valeai numen triflex
Jehava I Ignei^ aerU^ aguatani spiritus^ saheU I Orieniis
princeps Bdzehub^ infemi ardeniis monarcha^ et Detno-
gorgoriy propitiamus vos^ ui appareat et surgat Mephisi(h
philis^qmd tumerarU ;^ perJehovam^Gehmnafn^etcon- [20
secratam aquam quam nunc spargo^ signumque crucis quod
nunc faciOj et per voia nostra^ ipse nunc surgat nobis
dicatus ' Mephistophiiisl

Enter Mephistophius.

I charge thee to return and change thy shape ;
Thou art too ugly to attend on me.
Go, and return an old Franciscan friar ;
That holy shape becomes a devil best.

\Exit Mephistophius.
I see there's virtue in my heavenly words ;
Who would not be proficient in this art ?
How pliant is this Mephistophilis, 30

Full of obedience and humility !
Such is the force of Magic and my spells :
No,* Faustus, thou art conjuror laureat,

1 Ed. 16x6 inserts "dragon" after " Mephistophilis." Mitford pro-
posed "per Dagon quod numen aeris est,'' and the late Mr. James
Crossley wished to read " quod tu mandares.** A simpler correction
(omitting '* dragon '*) would be " Quid tu moraris ?*' We may suppose
that Faustus pauses after the first part of the invocation, chides Mephis-
tophilis for the delay, and then proceeds to employ a weightier speO. (I
am glad to hear from Mr. Kleay that he long ago made the c(»Tection
I propose.)

' So ed. x6ao and later 4tos. — Ed. 1604 " dicatis."

' Lines 33-35 are omitted in ed. x6i6. For "no/ J. H. Albeis (vid.
Wagner's Criiical Commeniary) suggests " now."

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SCENE 111.] Doctor Faustus. 225

Thou can'st command great Mq>histophilis :
Quin regis Mephistophilis frairis imagine.

Re-mter Mephistophilis like a Franciscan Friar?-

Meph, Now, Faustus, what would'st thou have me [to]
do?

Faust. I charge thee wait upon me whilst I live,
To do whatever Faustus shall command,
Be it to make the moon* drop from her sphere,
Or the ocean to overwhelm die world. 40

MepK I am a servant to great Lucifer,
And may not follow thee without his leave :
No more than he commands must we perform.

Faust. Did not he charge thee to appear to me ?

Mepk. No, I came hither ^ of mine own accord

Faust, Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee?
Speak.

Meph. That was the cause, but y^iper accidms ; *
For when we hear one rack the name of God,
Abjure the Scriptures and his Saviour Christ,
We fly in hope to get his glorious soul ; 50

Nor will we come, unless he use such means
Whereby he is in danger to be damned :

1 Dyce quotes from the prose-tract The History of Dr. Fausim: —

"After Dr. Faustus had made his promise to the devill, in the morning
betimes he called the spirit before him, and commanded him that he
should alwayes come to him like a fryer after the order of Saint FYancis,
with a bell in his hand like Saint Anthony, and to ring it once or twice
before he appeared, that he might know of his certaine coming. ''

s A common feat of magicians and witches.

' So ed« 162a — ^The earlier 4tos. •• now hither."

« Soed. z6aa~Earlier4t08. ** accident.''
VOL. L P

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2 26 The Tragical History of [scenb m.

Therefore the shortest cut for conjuring

Is stoutly to abjure the Trinity,*

And pray devoutly to the Prince of HelL

Faust So Faustus hath
Already done ; and holds this principle,
There is no Chief but only Belzebub,
To whom Faustus doth dedicate himself.
This word damnaium terrifies not him, 60

For he confounds Hell in Elysium ;
His ghost be with the old philosophers !
But, leaving these vain trifles of men's souls,
Tell me what is that Lucifer thy lord ?

Meph, Arch-regent and commander of all spirits.

Faust. Was not that Lucifer an Angel once?

Afeph. Yes, Faustus, and most dearly loved of God.

Faust How comes it then that he is Prince of
Devils?

Meph. O, by aspiring pride and insolence ;
For which God threw him from the face of heaven. 70

Faust And what are you that live with Lucifer ?

Meph. Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer
Conspired against our God with Lucifer,
And are for ever damned with Lucifer.

Faust Where are you damned ?

Meph, In HelL

Faust How comes it then that thou art out of Hell?

Meph. Why this is Hell, nor am I out of it :
Think'st thou that I who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of Heaven, 80

1 Ed. i6i6"aU godliness."

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scENB III.] Doctor Faustus. 227

Am not tormented with ten thousand Hells,

In being deprived of everlasting bliss ?

O Faustus ! leave these frivolous demands,

Which strike a terror to my fainting soul

Faust What, is great Mephistophilis so passionate

For being deprivM of the joys of Heaven ?

Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude,

And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess.

Go bear these ^ tidings to great Lucifer :

Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death 90

By desperate thoughts against Jove's deity.

Say he surrenders up to him his soul,

So he will spare him four and twenty ^ years.

Letting him live in all voluptuousness ;

Having thee ever to attend on me ;

To give me whatsoever I shall ask,

To tell me whatsoever I demand,

To slay mine enemies, and aid my friends,

And always be obedient to my wilL

Go, and return to mighty Lucifer, 100

And meet me in my study at midnight,

And then resolve me of thy master's mind

Meph. I will, Faustus. [Exit

Faust Had I as many souls as there be stars,

I'd give them all for Mephistophilis.

By him III be great Emperor of the world,

And make a bridge th[o]rough the moving air^

1 Soed. i6i6.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "those."
« Soed. 1616.— Eds. 1604, 1609, "24."

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228 The Tragical History of [scene iv.

To pasj the ocean with a band of men :

I'll join the hills that bind the Afric shore,

And make that country^ continent to Spain, no

And both contributory to my Crown.

The Emperor shall not live but by my leave,

Nor any Potentate of Germany.

Now that I have obtained what I desire,

111 live in speculation of this Art

Till Mephistophilis return again. \ExiL

SCENE IV.
Enter ' Wagner and Clown.

Wag, Sirrah, boy, come hither.

Clown. How, boy ! Swowns, boy ! I hope you have
seen many boys with such pickadevaunts ' as I have ;
boy, quotha!

Wc^, Tell me, sirrah, hast thou any comings in?

Clown. I, and goings out too. You may see else.

Wag. Alas, poor slave ! see how poverty jesteth in his
nakedness ! the villain is bare and out of service, and so
hungry that I know he would give his soul to the Devil
for a shoulder of mutton, though it were blood-raw. lo

Clown. How. My soul to the Devil for a shoulder of
mutton, though 'twere blood raw ! Not so, good friend.
By'r lady, I had need have it well roasted and good
sauce to it, if I pay so dear.

1 Soed. 1616.— Eds. 1604, 1609, "land."

■ Scene : a street. — The text of ed. i6i6 is given in the Appatdix.
' Beards cut sharply to a point (Fr. pic-d'devaiU). — ^A scene in the
1594 Taming of a Shrew opens.with a similar piece of fooling.

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SCENE IV.] Doctor Faustus. 229

Wag, Well, wilt thou serve us, and I'll make thee go
like Qui mihi disciptdus ? ^

Clown. How, in verse ?

Wag, No, sirrah ; in beaten silk and stavesacre.^

Clown. How, how, Knave's acre ! * I, I thought that
was all the land his father left him. Do you hear ? I
would be sorry to rob you of your living. 21

Wag. Sirrah, I say in stavesacre.

CloTvn. Oho ! Oho ! Stavesacre ! Why then belike if
I were your man I should be full of vermin.

Wag. So thou shalt, whether thou beest with me or
no. But, sirrah, leave your jesting, and bind yourself
presently unto me for seven years, or I'll turn all the lice
about thee into familiars, and they shall tear thee in
pieces. ^9

CloTvn. Do you hear, sir ? You may save that labour :
they are too familiar with me already : swowns ! they are
as bold with my flesh as if they had paid for their ^ meat
and drink.

Wag. Well, do you hear, sirrah ? Hold, take these
guilders. [Gives money.

Clown. Gridirons ! what be they ?

Wag, Why, French crowns.

* Dycc remarks that these are the first words of W. Lily's, ** Ad dis-
cipulos carmen de moribus. **

* A kind of larkspur, supposed to be efficacious in destroying vermin.

* "Knave's Acre (Poultney Street) is described by Strype, vi. 84,
quoted in P. Cunningham's Handbook for London^ as ' but nannow, and
chiefly inhabited by those that deal in old goods, and glass bottlel' (It
ran into Glasshouse Street)" — Ward,

* Soed, i6i6.— Ed. 1604 ••my."

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230 The Tragical History of [sckhbiv.

Clown. Mass, but in the name of French crowns, a
man were as good have as many English counters. And
what should I do with these ? 40

Wag, Why, now, sirrah, thou art at an hour's warning,
whensoever and wheresoever the Devil shall fetch thee.

Clown, No, no. Here, take your gridirons again.

Wag, Truly 1*11 none of them.

Clown, Truly but you shall.

Wag, Bear witness I gave them him.

Clown. Bear witness I give them you agaia

Wag. Well, I will cause two Devils presently to fetch
thee away — Baliol and Belcher. 49

Clown, Let your Baliol and your Belcher come here,
and 111 knock them, they were never so knocked since
they were Devils I Say I should kill one of them, what
would folks say ? " Do you see yonder tall fellow in the
round slop ^ — he has killed the devil" So I should be
called Kill-devil all the parish over.

Enter two Devils : the Clown runs up and down
crying.

Wag, Baliol and Belcher ! Spirits, away 1 [Exeunt Devils.

Clown. What, are they gone? A vengeance on them,
they have vild long nails ! There was a he-devil, and a
she-devil ! I'll tell you how you shall know them ; all
he-devils has horns, and all she-devils has clifts and cloven
feet 61

Wag, Well, sirrah, follow me.

1 Loose breeches, tiunk-hose.

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SCENE v.] Doctor Faustus. 2 3 1

Clotim. But, do you hear — ^if I should serve you, would
you teach me to raise up Banios and Belcheos ?

Wag. I will teach thee to turn thyself to anjrthing ; to
a dog, or a cat, or a mouse, or a rat, or anything.

Clown. How ! a Christian fellow to a dog or a cat, a
mouse or a rat ! No, no, sir. If you turn me into any-
thing, let it be in the likeness of a little pretty frisking
flea, that I may be here and there and everywhere. Oh,
I'll tickle the pretty wenches' plackets ; 111 be amongst
them, i' faith. 7^

Wc^. Well, sirrah, come.

Clown. But, do you hear, Wagner?

Wag. How ! Baliol and Belcher !

CloTvn. O Lord ! I pray, sir, let Banio and Belcher go
sleep.

Wag. Villain— call me Master Wagner, and let thy left
eye be diametarily iixed upon my right heel, with quasi
V€stigias ^ nostras insistere. \Exit. 80

Clown. God forgive me, he speaks Dutch fustian.
Well, I'll follow him : I'll serve him, that's flat. \Exit.

SCENE V.

Faustus discovered in his Study.

Faust. Now, Faustus, must
Thou needs be damned, and canst thou not be saved ;
What boots it then to think of God or Heaven ?

1 So aU the 4tos. As the mistake was doubtless intentional, I have
not corrected it

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232 The Tragical History of [scehev

Away with such vain fancies, and despair :

Despair in God, and trust in Belzebub ;

Now go not backward : no, Faustus, be resolute :

Why waver'st thou? O, something soundeth in mine

ears
Abjure this MagiCy turn to God again !
I, and Faustus will turn to God again.

To God? He loves thee not — 10

The God thou serv'st is thine own appetite,
Wherein is fixed the love of Belzebub ;
To him I'll build an altar and a church,
And offer lukewarm blood of new-bom babes.

Enter Good Angel and Evil AngeL

G. Ang,^ Sweet Faustus, leave that execrable Art

Faust. Contrition, prayer, repentance ! What of them?

G. Ang, O, they are means to bring thee unto Heaven.

E, Ang, Rather, illusions — fruits of lunacy.
That makes men foolish that do trust them most

G, Ang. Sweet Faustus, think ofHeaven, and heavenly
thmgs. 20

E. Ang, No, Faustus, think of honour and of ^ wealth.

[Exeunt Angels.

Faust Of wealth!
Why the Signiory of Embden shall be mine.
When Mephistophilis shall stand by me,

1 In ed. x6z6 the "Evil Angel " begins the colloquy with '*Go for-
ward, Faustus, with that fiunous art"
* So ed. i6i6.~Oniitted in ed. 1604.

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scEKB V J Doctor Faustus. 233

What God can hurt thee ? Faustus, thou art safe :
Cast no more doubts. Come, Mephistophilis,
And bring glad tidings from great Lucifer ; —
Is't not midnight ? Come, Mephistophilis ;
Veniy veniy Mephisiophile 1

Enter Mephistophilis.

Now tell me,^ what says Lucifer thy lord? 30

Meph, That I shall wait on Faustus whilst he ^ lives.

So he will buy my service with his soul.
Faust Already Faustus hath hazarded that for thee.
Meph. But, Faustus, thou must bequeath it solemnly.

And write a deed of gift with thine own blood,

For that security craves great Lucifer.

If thou deny it, I will back to Hell.
Faust Stay, Mephistophilis ! and tell me what good

Will my soul do thy lord.
Meph. Enlarge his kingdom. 40

Faust Is that the reason why he tempts us thus ?
Meph. Solamm miseris socios habuisse doioris,
Faust Why,8 have you any pain that tortures * others ?
Meph. As great as have the human souls of men.

But tell me, Faustus, shall I have thy soul ?

And I will be thy slave, and wait on thee,

And give thee more than thou hast wit to asL

1 So ed^ i6i6.~ Omitted in ed. 1604.
s So ed. i6z6.— Ed. 1604 " I Uve."
^ So ed. z6x6.'*Omitted in ed. 1604.

«Soed.i6o4. ''You" is of oouise the antecedent of "that.'* CC
noU^ p. 2X.

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234 7"^ Tragical History of [scene v.

Faust I, Mephistophilisy I give it thee.

Meph. Then, Faustus,^ stab thine arm courageously,
And bind thy soul that at some certain day 50

Great Lucifer may claim it as his own ;
And then be thou as great as Lucifer.

Faust \stabbing his arm.] Lo, Mephistophilis, for
love of thee,
I cut mine arm, and with my proper blood
Assure my soul to be great Lucifer's,
Chief lord and regent of perpetual night !
View here the blood that trickles from mine arm,
And let it be propitious for my wish.

Afeph. But, Faustus, thou must
Write it in manner of a deed of gift. 60

Faust I, so I will [ Writes,] But, Mephistophilis,
My blood congeals, and I can write no more.

Mph. I'll fetch thee fire to dissolve it straight [JBxit

Faust What might the staying of my blood portend?
Is it unwilling I should write this bill ?
Why streams it not that I may write afresh?
Faustus gives to thee his sauL Ah, there it stayed.
Why should'st thou not? Is not thy soul thine own ?
Then write again, Faustus gives to thee his soul.

Re-^nter Mephistophilis with a chafer of coals.
Meph, Here's fire- Come, Faustus, set it oa^ 70

1 So ed. x6i6. — Omitted in ed. 1604.

> "This would not be intelligible without the assistanoe of the
History of Dr, Faustus, the sixth chapter of which is headed — ' How
Dr. Faustus set his blood in a saucer on wanne ashes and writ as
foUoweth. * " — Dyce^ .

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scKNE v.] Doctor Faustus. 23s

Faust So now the blood begins to clear again ;
Now will I make an end immediately. [ Writes.

MepK O what will not I do to obtain his souL \Aside.

Faust Consummatum est: this bill is ended,
And Faustus hath bequeathed his soul to Lucifer.
But what is this inscription on mine arm ?
Homo, fuge ! Whither should I fly ?
If unto God, he'll throw me ^ down to HelL
My senses are deceived ; here's nothing writ : —
I see it plain ; here in this place is writ 80

Homo, Juge / Yet shall not Faustus fly.

Meph, I'll fetch him somewhat to delight his mind.

[Exit

Re-enter Mephistophilis with Devils, who give crowns
and rich apparel to Faustus, dance, and depart.

Faust. Speak, Mephbtophilis, what means this show ?

Meph. Nothing, Faustus, but to delight thy mind withal,
And to show thee what Magic can perform.

Faust But may I raise up Spirits when I please?

Meph. I, Faustus, and do greater things than these.

Faust Then there's enough for a thousand souls.
Here, Mephistophilis, receive this scroll,
A deed of gift of Body and of Soul : 90

But yet conditionally that thou perform
All articles prescribed between us both.

Meph. Faustus, I swear by Hell and Lucifer
To eflect all promises between us made.

1 Soed. z6i6.-*£d. 1604 "thee."

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236 The Tragical History of [scene v.

Faust Then hear me read them : On these conditions
following. Firsts that Faustus may be a Spirit in form
and substance. Secondly^ that Mephistophilis shall be his
servanty and fit his command. Thirdly^ shall do for him
and bring him whatsoever he desires.^ Fourthly y that he
shall be in his chamber or house invisible. Lastly ^ that he
shall appear to the scud John Faustus, cU all timeSy and
in what form or shape soever he pleases. I^ John Faustus,
of Wertenbergy Doctor^ by these presents do give both body
and soul to Lucifer, Prince of the £ast, and his minister,
Mephistophilis ; and furthermore grant unto them^ thai
tweniyf our years being expired^ the articles cUfOve written
inviolate^ full power to fetch or carry the said John
Faustus, body and soul^ fUsK bloody or goodsy into their
habitation wheresoever. By me^ John Faustus.

Jdeph. Speak, Faustus, do you deliver this as your
deed? "o

Faust. I, take it, and the Devil give thee good
on't !

Meph. Now, Faustus, ask what thou wilt

Faust. First will I question with thee about HelL
Tell me where is the place that men call Hell ?

Meph, Under the Heavens.

Faust. I, but whereabout ?

Meph. Within the bowels of these elements,

1 The words "he desires" are not found in the old copies. Dyoe
mentions that in the prose History of Dr. FausiuSt ed. 1648, the srd
article runs :— " That Mephistophilis should bring him anything and do
for him whatsoever "—a later edition adding " be desired."

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scBfi v.] Doctor Fanstus. 237

Where we are tortured and remain for ever ;
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place \ for where we are is Hell, 120

And where Hell is there ^ must we erer be :
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified.
All places shall be Hell that is not Heaven.
Faust Come, I think Hell's a &ble.
Meph, I, think so still, till experience change thy

mind.
Faust Why, think'st thou then that Faustus shall be

damned ?
Meph, I, of necessity, for here's the scroll
Wherein thou hast given thy soul to Lucifer.

Faust I, and body too ; but what of that ? 130

Think'st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine
That, after this life, there is any pain ?
Tush \ these are trifles, and mere old wives' tales.
Meph, But, Faustus, I am an instance to prove the
contrary.
For I am damned, and am now in HelL

Faust. How ! now in Hell ?
Nay, an this be Hell, I'll willingly be damned here ;
What ? ^ walking, disputing, &c. ?
Bat^ leaving off this, let me have a wife,
The fairest maid in Germany ; 140

1 So ed. x6i6.~Oinitted in ed. 1604.

' Ed. 16x6 reads,—" What, sleeping, eating, walking, and disputing."

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238 The Tragical History of [scene ▼.

For I am wanton and lascivious,
And cannot live without a wife.^

MepK How — a wife ?
I prithee, Faustus, talk not of a wife.

Faust Nay, sweet Mephistophilis, fetch me one, for I
will have one.

Mcph, Well— thou wilt have one. Sit here till I
come : 111 fetch thee a wife in the deviPs name. \Ejdt.

Re-enter Mephistophilis with a Devil drest like a
Woman with fireworks.

MepK Tell me,^ Faustus, how dost thou like thy wife?

Faust A plague on her for a hot whore !

Meph. Tut, Faustus, 150

Marriage is but a ceremonial toy ;
And ^ if thou lovest me, think no ^ more of it
I'll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed ;
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful

^ Ed. 1616 proceeds as follows :—

" Meph, Well, Faustus, thou shalt have a wife.

[MsPHiSTOPHiusyhblef in a womam-dniL
Faust, What sight is this?
Meph. Now, Faustus, wilt thou have a wife?
Faust, Here's a hot whore, indeed 1 No, 111 no wife.
Meph, Marriage is but/' &&

> Omitted in eds. 1604, 1^09. (The line is not in the later eds.)
< So ed. 16x6.— Not in ed. 1604.
4 So ed. 1616.— Not in ed. 1604.

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SCENE v.] Doctor Faustus. 239

As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book, peruse it thoroughly :

[Gives a book.
The iterating of these lines brings gold ; 160

The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and ^ lightning ;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself,
And men in armour ^ shall appear to thee,
Ready to execute what thou desir'st

Faust, Thanks,' Mephistophilis ; yet fain would I have
a book wherein I might behold all spells and incanta-
tions, that I might raise up spirits when I please.

Meph, Here they are, in this booL [Turns to them,

Faust, Nay, let me have one book more, — and then I
have done, — wherein I might see all plants, herbs, and
trees that grow upon the earth. 173

Meph, Here they be.

Faust, O, thou art deceived.

Meph. Tut, I warrant thee. [Turns to them.

[Exeunt,

1 Soed. 1604. Wagner, printing from ed. 1609, omits "and." In
either case " lightning " is a trisyllable. Ed. z6i6 gives ** Brings thunder,
whiriwinds, storm, and lightning."

* Ed. 1616 "harness."

* Ed. 1616 reads :—

" Famst. Thanks, Mephistophilis, for this sweet book :
This will I keep as chary as my life. [Bxeunt,"

Then begins a new scenfr—

{** £nUrV/AGVKR Mlmt, ,
Wag, Learned Faustus,
To know the secrets," &c.)
which should come later.

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240 The Tragical History of [scene vi.

SCENE VI.i
Enter Faustus and Msphistophilis.

FausL When I behold the heavens, then I repent,
And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis,
Because thou hast deprived me of those joys.

Meph. Why,* Faustus,
Thinkest thou Heaven is such a glorious thing ?
I tell thee 'tis not half so fair as thou,
Or any man that breathes on earth.

Faust How prov'st thou that ?

Meph. Twas made for man, therefore is man more
excellent

Faust, If it were made for man, 'twas made for
me; lo

I will renounce this Magic and repent

Enter Good Angel and Evil AngeL

G. Ang. Faustus, repent ; yet God will pity thee.
E. Ang. Thou art a Spurit ; God cannot pity thee.
Faust, Who buzzeth in mine ears I am a Spirit ?

^ In eds. 1604, 1609, this scene is a continuation of the former. Be-
fore seeing the eds. of Wagner and Ward, I had marked the commence-
ment of a new scene in my own copy. (Scene : a room in Faustus'
house.)
s Ed. z6i6 reads:—

" Mepk, 'Twas thine own seeking, Faustus ; thank thyself.
But think*st thou Heaven is such a glorious thing?
I tell thee, Faustus, it is not half so feir
As thou or any man that breathes on earth.
<* Faust, How proVst thou that ?
^^Meph, Twas made for man ; then he*s more exoellent.**

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acEiw vi.] Doctor Faustus. 24 1

Be I a Devil, yet God may pity me ;
I> God will pity me. if I repent

E. Ai^, I, but Faustus never shall repent

\EoMmt Angels.

FausL My heart's so hardened I cannot repent
Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven,
But ^ fearful echoes thunder in mine ears so

Faustus y thou art damned t Then swords and knives,
Poison,^ guns, halters, and envenomed steel
Are laid before me to despatdi myself,
And long ere this I should have slain myself
Had not sweet pleasure conquered deep despair.
Have not I made blind Homer sing to me
Of Alexander's love and (Enon's death ?
And hath not he that built the walls of Thebes
With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,
Made music with my Mephistophilis ? 30

Why should I die then, or basely despair?
I am resolved : Faustus shall ne^er repent**-
Come, Mephistophilis, let us dispute again.
And argue of divine Astrology.
Tell me, are there many heavens above the moon ?
Are all celestial bodies but one globe.
As is the substance of this centric earth ?

Meph, As are the elements, such are the spheres '
Mutually folded in each other's orb,

1 Lines ao-ai are omitted in ed. x6i6.
• Ed. x6i6 *' Swords, poisons, halteis." ftc.
' After this line ed. x6x6 gires —
*' ETen fipom ttie moon uato the cmpjneal orU"
VOL. L Q

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242 The Tragical History of [scenkvl

And, Faustus, 40

All jointly move upon one axletree
Whose tenninine is termed the wide world's pole ;
Nor are the names of Saturn, Mars, or Jupiter
Feigned, but are erring stars.

Faust But tell me, have they all one motion both,
situ et tempore,

Meph, All jointly move from east to west in twenty-
four hours upon the poles of the world ; but differ in their
motion upon the poles of the zodiac.

Faust Tush ! 50

These slender trifles Wagner can decide ;
Hath Mephistophilis no greater skill ?
Who knows not the double motion of the planets ?
The first is finished in a natural day ;
The second thus : as Saturn in thirty years ; Jupiter in
twelve : Mars in four ; the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in
a year ; the Moon in twenty-eight days. Tush, these are
freshmen's ^ suppositions. But tell me, hath every sphere
a dominion or intelligtntia f

Meph. I. 60

Faust How many heavens, or spheres, are there?

Meph, Nine: the seven planets, the firmament, and
the empyreal heaven.^

Faust Well, resolve me in this question ; Why have

1 At Oxford students in their first tenn are still called " fireshmen."
* Ed. z6i6 proceeds —

" FausU But is there not cmlum igneum et erysttUUmum f

" Meph. No» Faustus, they are but fables.

** Faust, ResoWe me then in this one question : Why," &c.

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scKNB vi.] Doctor Faustus. 243

we not conjunctions, oppositions, aspects, eclipses, all
at one time, but in some years we have more, in some
less?

Meph. Per inaqualem motum respedu totius.

Faust Welly I am answered Tell me who made the
world. 70

Meph. I will not

Faust Sweet Mephistophilis, tell me.

Meph. Move me not,^ for I will not tell thee.

Faust Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me any-
thing ?

Meph. I, that is not against our kingdom ; but this is.
Think thou on Hell, Faustus, for thou art damned.

Faust Think, Faustus, upon God that made the
world.

Meph. Remember this. \Exii.

Faust. I, go, accursed Spirit, to ugly Hell. 80

'Tis thou hast damned distress^ Faustus' soul
Is't not too late?

Re-enter Good Angel and Evil AngeL

JS. Ang. Too late,

G. Ang. Never too late, if Faustus can repent

E. Ang. If thou repent. Devils shall tear thee in

, pieces.
G. Ang. Repent, and they shall never raze thy skin.

\Exeunt Angels.

' 1 Ed. z6x6 *' Move me not, Faustus " (omitting " for I will not tell
thee"}.

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244 The Tragical History of [scbn»vi.

FdMst Ah, Christ my Saviour,*
Seek to save distressed Faustus' soul !

Enter Lucifer, Belzebub, and MEPHisroPHiua

Luc Christ cannot save thj soul, for he is just ;
There's none but I have interest in the same. 90

FausU O, who art thou that look'st 10 ter^
rible?

Luc, I am Lucifer,
And this is my companion*prince in HelL

Faust O Faustus ! they are come to fetch away'
thy soul )

Luc,^ We come to tell thee thou dost injure us ;
Thou talk'st of Christ contrary to thy promise \
Thou should'st not think of God : think kA the Devil,
And of his dam too.

FausU Nor will I henceforth : pardon me in this.
And Faustus vows never to lock to Heaven,
Never * to name God, or to pray to him, 100

To bum his Scriptures, slay his Ministers,
And make my Spirits pull his Churches down.

1 Ed. z6i6 rq)eats the words *' my Saviour. **

* Omittfd in ed. x6i6, to the advantage of the metre.

* The arrangemest in ed. 1616 is as follows : —

" Beh, We are come to tell thee thou dost injure us.

** Lmc, Thou call'st on Chiist contrary to thy promise.

" Btlx. Thou shouldst not think on God.

*^Lu€, Think on the Devil

**^*/r. And his dam too."
(The mention of the devil's 'Mam" must surely have been added by
the actor to provoke a laugh from the groundlings.)
^ Lines 100-X02 are omitted in ed. 1616.

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scEME Yti Doctor Faustus. 245

Luc. Do so, and we will highly gratify thee. Faustus,
we are come from Hell to show thee sonle pastiipe : sit
down, and thou shalt see all the Seven Deadly Sins^
appear in their proper shapes.

JFaust That sight will be as pleasing unto me.
As Paradise was to Adam the first day
Of his creation.

Luc. Talk not of paradise nor creation, but mark this
show: talk of the Devil, and nothing else: come
away ! 122

Enter the Seven Deadly Sins.

Now, Faustus, examine them of their several names and
dispositions.

Faust What art thou— *he first?

I^ide. I am Pride. I disdain to have any parents.
I am like to Ovid's fiea :* I can creep into every comer
of a wench ; sometimes, like a perriwig, I sit upon her
brow ; or like a fan of feathers, I kiss her lips ; indeed
I do— what do I not? But, fie, what a scent is here!
Ill not speak another word, except the ground were per-
fumed, and covered with cloth of arras. 13^

Faust, What art thou — the second?

Covet. I am Covetousness, begotten of an old churl in
an old leathern bag ; and might I have my wish I would
desire that thb house and all the people in it were turned

1 At Dulwich College Is preserved the ** plat ** of an eztemporal play
hf Richard Tarlton ob the sabject of the Seven Deadly Sins. See
CoUier'f Mngt, Dram. Petiry^ ifi. 994 (ed. x\.

s An allusion to the mediaeval Carwun de PuUce, formerly ascribed to
Ovid.

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246 The Tragical History of [scene vi.

to gold, that I might lock you up in my good chest* 0,
my sweet gold 1

Faust What art thou — ^the third? 139

Wrath, I am Wrath. I had neither father nor mother :
I leapt out of a lion's mouth when I was scarce half an
hour old ; and ever since I have run up and down the
world with this case ^ of rapiers, wounding myself when
I had nobody to fight withaL I was born in Hell ; and
look to it, for some of you shall be my father.

Faust What art thou—the fourth?

Envy. I am Envy, begotten of a chimney-sweeper and
an oyster-wife. I cannot read, and therefore wish all
books were burnt I am lean with seeing others eat O
that there would come a famine through all the world,
that all might die, and I live alone I then thou should'st
see how fat I would be. But must thou sit and I stand !
Come down with a vengeance I 153

Faust Away, envious rascal 1 What art thou — ^the fifth ?

Glut Who, I, sir? I am Gluttony. My parents are
all dead, and the devil a penny they have left me, but a
bare pension, and that is thirty meals a day and ten
bevers ' — a small trifle to suffice nature. O, I come of
a royal parentage ! My grandfather was a Gammon of
Bacon, my grandmother was a Hogshead of Claret-wine;

1 Pair of rapiers. Cf. Webster's WUU Devil (ed. 1857, p. 46) :—

" My lord hath left me yet two case of jewels
Shall make me scorn your bounty.**

(The speaker, Flaminius, goes out and presenUy returns with "two
fi0j« of pistols.")
s Refreshment between meals.

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SCENE VL] Doctor Faustus. 247

my godfathers were these, Peter Pickleherrmg, and Mar-
tin- Martlemas-beef ; ^ O, but my godmother, she was a
jolly gentlewoman, and well beloved in every good town
and city ; her name was Mistress Margery March-beer.'
Now, Faustus, thou hast heard all my progeny, wilt thou
bid me to supper ? 166

Faust No, I'll see thee hanged : thou wilt eat up all
my victuals.

Glut Then the Devil choke thee !

Faust Choke thyself glutton ! Who art thou— the
sixth? 171

Sloth. I am Sloth. I was begotten on a sunny bank,
where I have lain ever since; and you have done me
great injury to bring me from thence : let me be carried
thither again by Gluttony and Lechery. I'll not speak
another word for a king's ransom.

Faust What are you, Mistress Minx, the seventh and
last?

Lech. Who, I, sir? I am one that loves an inch of raw
mutton better than an ell of fried stockfish ; and the first
letter of my name begins with L.' 181

1 «< MafUemas was the costomaiy time for hanging up provisions to
dry, which had been salted for winter provision ; as our ancestors lived
chiefly upon salted meat in the spring, the winter-fed cattle not being
fit for use."— iVtfrer. The Feast of St. Martin falls on November xzth.

s The March brewing was much esteemed. In Shirlejr's Captain
Underwit a fendng-master's allowance is put at *' twenty pipes of Ber-
mudas [«.«. twenty pipeAils of tobacco] a day, six flagons of March
ittTy a quart of sack in a week,— for he scorns meat" (See my Old
Plays, ii, 323.)

a All the copies read "Lechery.** The change was proposed by
Collier.

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248 The Tragical History of (scbmivl

\LucY Away to Hell, to Hdl I Now, Faustus, how
dost thou like this ? \Exetmt tJu Sins.

FausL O, this feeds my sooll

Luc Tut, Faustus, in Hell is all maimer of delight

Faust O might I see Hell, and return again,
How happy were I then I

Luc. Thou shalt ; I will send for thee at midnight
In meantime take this book ; peruse it throughly,
And thou shalt turn thyself into what shape thou wilt. 190

FausU Great thanks, mighty Lucifer !
This will I keep as chary as my life.

Luc Farewell, Faustus, and think on the Devil

FausL Farewell, great Lucifer 1

\Exeunt LuaiXR and Bxlzsbu&
Come, Mephistophilis.'

Enter Chorus.

Chorus, Learned Faustus,
To know the secrets of Astronomy,
Graven in the book of Jove's high firmament.
Did mount himself to scale Olympus' top^
Being seated in a chariot burning bright.
Drawn by the strength of yoky dragons' necks.

1 Ed. 16x6 reads >^

*' Luc, Away to HeH, &way ! Od, piper t [JKxewtf ihe Sins.
*'Fauit, O, hofw this sight doth delight my soul 1
«* Luc. But, Faustus. in heU.*' &c

9 I should like to omit ** thyself" for the metre'is sake.
* In ed. x6i6 their follows a clownish scene between Robin and Did[.
I have printed it after the play in the Appendix,

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scEKE T1.1 Doctor Faustus. 2 49

He now is gone to prove Cosmography,

And, as I guess, will first arrive at Rome,

To see the Pope and manner of his Court,

And take some part of holy Peter's feast, 10

That to this day is highly solemnised.^ [Extt.

1 In ed. z6i6 the speech of the Chorus !s expanded as follows :—

CJkir. LeamM FlaiistDS,
To find the secrets of Astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove's high firmament.
Did mount him up to scale Olympus* top ;
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright.
Drawn tiy the strength of yolkhd dragons' necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars,
The tropic zones, and quarters of the sky,
From the bright dxcle of the bomM moon
Even to the height of Primum MoHJe;
And, whirling round with this circumference,
Within the ooooaw compass of the pole^
From east to west his dns^ons swiftly glide,
And in eight days did bring him home again.
Not long he sta7*d within his qmet house.
To rest his1x>nes after his weary toU ;
But new exploits do bale him out again :
And, mounted then upon a dragon's back,
That with his wings did part the subtle air.
He now is gone to prove cosmography,
That measures coasts and kingdoms of the earth ;
And, as I guess, vriU first airive at Rome^
To see the Pope and manner of his court,
And take some part of holy Peter^ feast.
The vhk:h this day is highly solcmnisU lEsit,

The additional Unas seem worthy of Marlowe, and add considerably
to the picturesqneoes of the original.— *In Henslowe's inventory of the
|jiu|i e ity of the Admiral^ men {Diary, p. 973) mentk>n is made of " z
dragon io Fostes,'* Perhaps (as Wagner suggests) Fanstos ali^ted from
his dragon-car at the beginning of the next scene.

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250 The Tragical History of [scenx vii.

SCENE VII.

EnUr'^ Faustus a«i/ Mephistophilis.

Faust Having now, my good Mephistophilis,
Passed with delight the stately town of Trier, *
Environed round with airy mountain tops.
With .walls of flint, and deep entrenched lakes,
Not to be won by any conquering prince ;
From Paris next, coasting the realm of France,
We saw the river Maine fall into Rhine,
Whose banks are set with groves of fruitful vines ;
Then up to Naples, rich Campania,
Whose buildings fair and gorgeous to the eye, i

The streets straight forth, and paved with finest brick,
Quarter the tovm in four equivalents : ^
There saw we learnbd Maro's golden tomb,
The way he cut, an English mile in length,
Thorough a rock of stone in one night's space ;^
From thence to Venice, Padua, and the rest.
In one ^ of which a sumptuous temple stands,

1 The scene is laid in the Pope's privy-chamber.
« Treves.

* Ed. 1604 "equivalence."

^ Dyoe quotes from Petnuch's /tin^rariitmSyriacum:—** Non longe
a PuteoUs Falernus oollis attollitur, famoso palmite nobilis. Inter Fal-
emum et mare mons est sazeus hominum manibus confossus qood vulgus
tnsulsum a Viigilio magieis cantaminibus factum patant"

• So ed. x6i6.— Ed. 1604 " in midst of which." (From the prase Jfis-
taryo/Dr, Faustus, Dyceihows that the ''sumptuous temple" is Sl
Mark's at Venice.)

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SCENE VII.] Doctor Faustus. 251

That threats the stars with her aspiring top.^

Thus hitherto has Faustus spent his time :

But tell me, now, what resting-place is this ? 20

Hast thou, as erst I did command.

Conducted me within the walls of Rome ?

Meph.^ Faustus, I have ; and because we will not be
unprovided, I have taken up his Holiness' privy-chamber
for our use.
Faust. I hope his Holiness will bid us welcome. '
Mtph. Tut,^ 'tis no matter, man, well be bold with
his good cheer.
And now, my Faustus, that thou ma/st perceive
What Rome contameth to delight thee with,
Know that this city stands upon seven hills 30

That underprop the groundwork of the same :
Just^ through the midst runs flowing Tiber's stream,
With winding banks that cut it in two parts :
Over the which four ^ stately bridges lean,
That make safe passage to each part of Rome :
Upon the bridge called Ponte * Angelo
£rected is a castle passing strong,

^ In ed. z6x6 these two lines are added : —

" Whose frame is paved with sundiy cobtired stones.
And rooft aloft with curious work in gold. **
s A garbled version of what Marlowe wrote. £d. x6i6 gives : —
" I have, my Faustus, and, for proof thereof,
This is the goodly palace of the Pope :
And, cause we are no common guests,
I choose his privy-chamber for our use."
* Ed. z6i6,— " All's one, for we'll be bold with his vemson."
^ This line and the next, necessary for the sense, first occur in ed. 1616.
» Ed. 16x6 "two." • Old eds. ••Ponto."

f

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252 The Tragical History of (sceni til

Within ^ whose walk such store of ordnance axe.

And double ' cannons fonned of carvM bnuBS,

As match the days within one cbmplete year ; 40

Besides the gates and high pyramided

Which Julius Caesar brought from Africa.

FoMst Now by the kingdoms of infernal rulCi
Of Styx; of ^ Acheron, and the fiery lake
Of ever-burning Phl^ethon, I swear
That I do long to see the monuments
And situation of bright*splendent Rome :
Come therefore, let's away.

Meph,^ Nay, Faustus, stay ; I know you'd see the Pope^
And take some part of holy Peter's feast, SO

Where thou shalt see a troop of baki-pate friarsi
Whose summum banum is in bdly cheen

FoMsi. Well, I'm content to compass them some sport,
And by their folly make us merriment
Then charm me [Mephistophilis] that I
May be inyinciUe, to do what I please
Unseen of any whilst I stay in Rome.

[Mephistophilis dutrms turn.

1 Ed. z6i6 reads :—

"Where thoo shalt see sach store of ofd[!]Baiice
As that the doahle cannons, forg'd of brass,
Do match the •oumber of the days containVI
Within the compass of one cftmplete 3Pear."

* **This probably means cannons with doable bores. Two cannoos
with tripk bores were taken from the French at Malplaquet, and are
now in the Woolwich Museam.'*— W^ri.

* So ed. z6x6.— Omittad in ed. tbo^

^ From this point the scene is greatly ezpaadad In cd» t6i^ See
AfpemUx,

■}

1

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sciNi viL J Doctor Faustus. 35 3

Meph, So^ Faustufl^ now
Do what thou wilt, thou shalt not be discerned.

Sffund a Sonmty Enter the Pope and the Cardinal of
LoRRAiN to the banquet^ with Friars attending.

Pope. MjLord of Lorrain, wiltpleaseyou draw near ?6o
Faust, Fall to, and the devil dioke you an you spare I
Pope, How now ! Who's that which spake ? — Friars,

look about.
First Friar, Kerens nobody, if it like your Holiness.
Pope, My lord, here is a dainty dish was sent me from
the Bishop of Milan.
Faust. I thank yoUt sir. \Snatches the dish.

Pope, How now! Who's that which snatched the meat
fiom me? Will no man look ? My Lord» this dish was
sent me from the Cardinal of Florence. 69

Faust, You say true ; I'll ha't. [Snatches the dish.

Pope, What, again 1 My lord, 111 drink to your grace;
Faust, 111 pledge your grace. \Snaiches the cup.

C of Lor. My lord, it may be some ghost newly crept
out of Purgatory, come to beg a pardon of your Holiness.
Pope. It may be so. Friars prepare a dirge to lay the
fury of this ghost Once again, my lord, fall to.

\The PoPK crosses himself.
Faust, What, are you crossing of yourself ?
Welly use that trick no more I would advise you.

[The Pope crosses himself again,

^ Nares enumerates six various forms — Semiet, Senet, Symiet, Cynet,
Signet and Signate. It is defined by the same authority as ' * a particular
set of notes on the Cnuapet or oomet, different from a flottrish."

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254 3^^ Tragical History of [scene vil

Well, there's the second time. Aware the third,
I give you fair warning. 80

\The Pope crosses himsdf again^ and Faustus hits
him a box of the ear ; and th^ all run away.
Come on, Mephistophilis, what shall we do ?

MepK Nay, I know not We shall be cursed with
bell, book, and candle.
Faust, How 1 bell, book, and candle, — candle, book,
and bell,
Forward and backward to curse Faustus to Hell !
Anon you shall hear a hog grunt, a calf bleat^ an ass bray,
Because it is Saint Peter's holiday.

Re-enter the Friars to sing the Dirge,

First Friar, Come, brethren, let's about our business

with good devotion. [^^ ^^g*

Cursed be he that stole away his Holiness^ meat from the

table/ Maledicat Dominus 90

Cursed be he that struck his Holiness a blow on the face /

Maledicat Dominus /
Cursed be he that took ^ Friar Sandelo a blow on the pate I

Maledicat Dominus /
Cursed be he that disturbeth our holy dirge I Maledicat
Dominus ! 100

Cursed be he that took away his Holiness wine I Maledicat
Dominus/ Et omnes sancti I Amen!
Mephistophilis and Faustus beat t/u Friars^ and
fling fireworks among t/iem : and so exeunt.

1 Wagner wanted to read "stiook," but Ward aptly compares Measurt
for Measure, ii. z. 289 :^'* If be took you a box o' the ear."

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SCENE vuL] Doctor Faustus. 255

Enter Chorus.

Chorus. When Faustus had with pleasure ta'en the
view
Of rarest things, and royal cpurts of kings,
He stayed his course, and so returned home ;
Where such as bear his absence but with grief,
I mean his friends, and near'st companions,
Did gratulate his safety with kind words.
And In their conference of what befell,
Touching his journey through the world and air,
They put forth questions of Astrology,
Which Faustus answered with such learned skill, 10

As they admired and wondered at his wit
Now is his fame spread forth in every land ;
Amongst the rest the Emperor is one,
Carolus the Fifth, at whose palace now
Faustus is feasted 'mongst his noblemea
What there he did in trial of his art,
I leave untold— your eyes shall see performed. \Exit

SCENE VIIL

Enier^ Robin the Ostler with a book in his hand.

Robin. O, this is admirable ! here I ha' stolen one of
Dr. Faustus's conjuring books, and i' faith I mean to
search some circles for my own use. Now will I make

1 Scene : an Inn*yard. The scene is omitted in ed. 1616, and later

4t08.

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2 56 The Tragical Histofy of [sowk vin.

all the maidens in our parish dance at my pleasure, stark
naked before me ; and so by that meana Ishall see more
than e'er I felt or saw yet

Enter Ralph caUtng Robin.

JRalph, ViJckixK prithee come away ; there's a gentle-
man tarries to have his horse» and he would have his
things rubbed and made dean ; he keeps such a chafing
with my mistress about it ; and she has sent me to look
thee out i prithee come away. ii

JRobin. Keep out, keep out, ox dse you are blown up ;
you are dismembered, RsJph ; keep out» for I am about
a roaring piece of w<tfk.

Jialph. Come» what doest thou with that same 7 Thou
can'st not read

JRobin. Yes, my master and mistress shall find that I
can read, he for hia forehead, she foe her pritate study ;
she's bom to bear wildi m^ or else my art fails

Jta^h. Why» Robin^ what book is that ? ao

Jiobin, What book I why the most intolerable book for
conjuring that e'er was invented by any brimstone devil.

Ralph. Can'st thou conjure with it?

Robin. I can do all these things easily with it; first, I
can make thee drunk with ippocras^ at any tabem in
Europe for nothing ; that's one of my conjuring worksL

Ralph. Our Master Parson says that's nothing.

Robin. True, Ralph \ and more, Ralph, if thou hast

1 " A medicated drink composed osnAlly of red idne, bat sometmies
white, with the addition of sugar and spices.'*— iVoivr.

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scEWE IX.] Doctor Faustus. 25 7

any mind to Nan Spit, our kitchenmaid, then turn her
and wind her to thy own use as often as thou wilt, and
at midnight 31

Ralph. O brave Robin, shall I have Nan Spit, and to
mine own use ? On that condition I'd feed thy devil
with horsebread ^ as long as he lives, of free cost

Robin, No more^ sweet Ralph : let's go and make clean
our boots, which lie foul upon our hauids, and then to our
conjuring in the devil's name. \ExeHni.

SCENE IX.
Enter ^ Robin and Ralph with a silver goblet,

Robin. Come, Ralph, did not I tell thee we were for
ever made by this Doctor Faustus* book? ecce signum^
here's a simple purchase ' for horsekeepers ; our horses
shall eat no hay as long as this lasts.

Ralph. But, Robin, here comes the Vintner.

Robin. Hush ! I'll gull him supematurally.

Enter Vintner.

Drawer, I hope all is paid: God be with you; come,
Ralph.

I It was a oommon practice among our ancestors to feed horses on
bread. NarcB quotes from Gervase Markham a recipe for making
hone-loaves.

s Dyoe supposes that a scene has dropped out before the re-entrance
of Robin and Ralph. Scene : an Isat-yzid as before. (The text of ed.
1616 is given in the Affendix,)

* See note 3. p. 4^

VOL. I. R

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258 The Tragical History of [scene ix.

Vint. Soft, sir ; a word with you. I must yet have a
goblet paid from you, ere you ga 10

Robin. I, a goblet, Ralph ; I, a goblet ! I scorn you,
and you are but a ^ &c. I, a goblet ! search me.

Vint I mean so, sir, with your favour. \Searche5 him,

Robin, How say you now ?

Vint, I must say somewhat to your fellow. You, sir !

Ralph, Me, sir! me, sir! search your fill. [Vintner
searches Aim,] Now, sir, you may be ashamed to burden
honest men with a matter of truth.

Vint. Well, t'one* of you hath this goblet about
yoiL 20

Robin, You lie, drawer, 'tis afore me. [Aside.] Sirrah
you, rU teach you to impeach honest men ; — stand by ;
— Ill scour you for a goblet ! — stand aside you had best,
I charge you in the name of Belzebub. Look to the
goblet, Ralph. [Asiiie to Ralph.

Vint, What mean you, sirrah ?

Robin, ril tell you what I mean. [Reads from a
book.] Sanctobulorum Periphrasticon — Nay, 111 tickle
you. Vintner. Look to the goblet, Ralph.

[Aside to Ralph.

[Reads^ Polypragmos Beiseborams framanto pacostiphos
tostUy Mephistophilisy ^c, 31

1 The choice of abuse was left to the actor (who was no doabt equal
to the occasion). In an old play, the Tryall of CkevaUy (1605), we find
the stage direction, " Exit Clown, speaking anything.'^

> The one.

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SCENE IX.] Doctor Faustus. 259

Enter Mkphistophilis, sets squibs at their hacks^ and then
exit. They run about

Vint. O nomine Domini! what meanest thou, Robin?
thou hast no goblet

Ralph, Peccatum peccatorum 1 Here's thy goblet, good
Vintner. [Groes the goblet to Vintner, who exit,

Robin, Misericordia pro nobis! What shall I do?
Good devil, forgive me now, and 111 never rob thy library
more.

Re-enter Mephistophilis.

Meph} Monarch of Hell, under whose black survey
Great potentates do kneel with awful fear, 40

Upon whose altars thousand souls do lie.
How am I vexfed with these villains' charms ?
From Constantinople am I hither come
Only for pleasure of these damnfed slaves.

Robin, How from Constantinople ? You have had a
great journey : will you take sixpence in your purse to
pay for your supper, and begone ?

Meph, Well, villains, for your presumption, I transform
thee into an ape, and thee into a dog ; and so begone.

[Exit

Robin, How, into an ape ; that's brave 1 I'll have fine
sport with the boys. I'll get nuts and apples enow. 51

Ralph, And I must be a dog.

1 Eds. 1604, 1609, TtaAi^^^ Meph. Vanish, villaines, th* one like an
ape. another like a bear, the third an ass for doing this enterprise." then
proceeding as in the text. The words that I have omitted are (as Dyoe
observed) quite unneoessary.

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26o The Tragical History of [scene x.

Robin. V faith thy head will never be out of the
pottage pot {Exeunf^

SCENE X.

Enter ^ Emperor, Faustus, and a Knight with
Attendants.

Emp, Master Doctor Faustus, I have heard strange
report of thy knowledge in the black art, how that none
in my empire nor in the whole world can compare with
thee for the rare effects of magic : they say thou hast a
familiar spirit, by whom thou can'st accomplish what thou
list. This therefore is my request, that thou let me see
some proof of thy skill, that mine eyes may be witnesses
to confirm what mme ears have heard reported : and here
I swear to thee by the honour of mine imperial crown,
that, whatever thou doest, thou shalt be no ways pre-
judiced or endamaged. ii

Knight, lYaith he looks much like a conjuror. [Aside.

Faust. My gracious sovereign, though I must confess
myself far inferior to the report men have published,
and nothing answerable to the honour of your imperial
majesty, yet for that love and duty binds me thereunto, I
am content to do whatsoever your majesty shall com-
mand me.

Emf. Then, Doctor Faustus, mark what I shall
say.

1 For what follows in ed. i6z6 see Appendix,

> Scene : the Emperor's palace at Innsbruck. The text of ed. 1616
is given in the Appendix,

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SCENE X.] Doctor Faustus. 261

As I was sometime solitary set ^

Within my closet, sundry thoughts aroSe

About the honour of mine ancestors,

How they had won by prowess such exploits,

Got such riches, subdued so many kingdoms

As we that do succeed, or they that shall

Hereafter possess our throne, shall

(I fear me) ne'er attain to that degree

Of high renown and great authority ;

Amongst which kings is Alexander the Great,

Chief spectacle of the world's pre-eminence, 30

The bright shining of whose glorious acts

Lightens the world with his reflecting beams,

As when I hear but motion made of him

It grieves my soul I never saw the man

If therefore thou by cunning of thine art

Canst raise this man from hollow vaults below,

Where lies entombed this famous conqueror,

And bring with him his beauteous paramour,

Both in their right shapes, gesture, and attire

They used to wear during their time of life, 40

Thou shalt both satisfy my just desire.

And give me cause to praise thee whilst I live.

Faust My gracious lord, I am ready to accomplish
your request so far forth as by art, and power of my
Spirit, I am able to perform.

Knight, I'faith that's just nothing at all [Aside.

Faust, But, if it like your grace, it is not in my ability
to present before your eyes the true substantial bodies

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262 The Tragical History of [scene x.

of those two deceased princes, which long since are con-
sumed to dust 50

Knight I, marry, Master Doctor, now there's a sign
of grace in you, when you will confess the truth. \A5ide.

Faust, But such sphits as can lively resemble Alex-
ander and his paramour shall appear before your grace
in that manner that they both ^ lived in, in their most
flourishing estate ; which I doubt not shall sufficiently
content your imperial majesty.

Emp, Go to. Master Doctor, let me see them pre-
sently.

Knight Do you hear, Master Doctor? You bring
Alexander and his paramour before the Emperor ! 61

Faust How then, sir ?

Knight. I'faith that's as true as Diana turned me to a
stag!

Faust. No, sir, but when Actaeon died, he left the
horns to you. Mephistophilis, begone.

[Exit Mephistophius,

Knight Nay, an you go to conjuring, I'll begone.

[Exit.

Faust. I'll meet with you anon for interrupting me so.
Here they are, my gracious lord.

Re-enter Mephistophilis with Spirits in the shape of
Alexander and his Paramour.

Emp. Master Doctor, I heard this lady while she

1 Dyce's correction for **bcst " of ed. 1604.

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SCENE X.] Doctor Faustus. 263

lived had a wart or mole on her neck : how shall I know
whether it be so or no ? 72

Faust Your highness may boldly go and see,

Emp, Sure these are no Spirits, but the true sub-
stantial bodies of those two deceased princes.

\Exeuni Spirits.

Faust Wiirt please your highness now to send for the
Knight that was so pleasant with me here of late ?

Emp. One of you call him forth ! \Exit Attendant.

Re-tnter the Knight with a pair of horns on his head.

How now, Sir Knight ! why I had thought thou had'st
been a bachelor, but now I see thou hast a wife, that
not only gives thee horns, but makes thee wear them.
Feel on thy head. 82

Knight Thou damned wretch and execrable dog.
Bread in the concave of some monstrous rock.
How darest thou thus abuse a gentleman ?
Villain, I say, undo what thou hast done !

Faust O, not so fast, sir; there's no haste; but,
good, are you remembered how you crossed me in my
conference with the Emperor ? I think I have met with
you for it 90

Emp, Good Master Doctor, at my entreaty release
him : he hath done penance sufficient

Faust My gracious lord, not so much for the injury
he offered me here in your presence, as to delight you
with some mirth, hath Faustus worthily requited this
injurious Knight : which, being all I desire, I am con-
tent to release him of his horns : and. Sir Knight, here-

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264 The Tragical History of [scene xi.

after speak well of scholars. Mephbtophilis, transform
him straight [Mephistophilis removes the horns.]
Now, my good lord, having done my duty I humbly
take my leave. loi

£mp. Farewell, Master Doctor ; yet, ere you go
Expect from me a bounteous reward. [Exeutt/.

SCENE XL
£n(er^ Faustus and Mephistophius.

J*aust Now, Mephistophilis, the restless course
That Time doth run with calm and silent foot,
Shortening my days and thread of vital life,
Calls for the payment of my latest years :
Therefore, sweet Mephistophilis, let us
Make haste to Wertenberg.

Mep/u What, will you go on horseback or on foot?

J^aust Nay, till I'm past this fair and pleasant green«
111 walk on foot

En/er a Horse-Courser.*

Horsi'C. I have been all this day seeking one Master
Fustian : mass, see where he is ! God save you, Master
Doctor ! 12

Faust What, horse-courser ! You are well met

1 Faustus and Mephistophilis are seen croniiig a ''fair and pleasant
green : " they are supposed to arrive presently at Faustus' house. In
the old ed. the present scene is not sepazated from the preceding,

* 1,€, horse-jforrer, horse-dealer.

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SCENE xij Doctor Faustus. 265

Horse- C. Do you hear, sir ? I have brought you forty
dollars for your horse.

Faust I cannot sell him so : if thou likest him for
fifty, take him.

Horse- C. Alas, sir, I have no more. — I pray you speak
for me. 19

Meph, I pray you let him have him : he is an honest
fellow, and he has a great charge, neither wife nor child.

Faust Well, come, give me your money. (Horse-
Courser gwes Faustus the money,) My boy will deliver
him to you. But I must tell you one thing before you
have him ; ride him not into the water at any hand.

Horse-C, Why, sir, will he not drink of all waters?

Faust. O yes, he will drink of all waters, but-xide
him not into the water : ride him over hedge or ditch,
or where thou wilt, but not into the water. 29

Horse-C. Well, sir. — Now am I a made man for ever :
111 not leave my horse for [twice] forty : if he had but
the quality of hey-ding-ding, hey-ding-ding, I'd make a
brave living on him : he has a buttock as slick ^ as an eel.
\Aside!\ Well, God b' wi' ye, sir, your boy will deliver
him me : but hark you, sir ; if my horse be sick or ill at
ease, if I bring his water to you, you'll tell me what it is.

Faust > Away, you villain; what, dost think I am a
horse-doctor ? [Exit Horse-Courser.

What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemned to die ?
Thy fatal time doth draw to final end ; 40

Despair doth drive distrust unto my thoughts :

1 Sleek.

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266 The Tragical History of [scene xi.

Confound these passions with a quiet sleep :
Tush, Christ did call the thief upon the cross ;
Then rest thee, Faustus, quiet in conceit.

{Sleeps in his chair

Re-enter Horse-Courser, aU wet^ crying.

Horse- C, Alas, alas! Doctor Fustian quotha? mass,
Doctor Lopus ^ was never such a doctor : has given me
a purgation has purged me of forty dollars ; I shall never
see them more. But yet, like an ass as I was, I would
not be ruled by him, for he bade me I should ride him
into no water: now I, thinking myhorse had had some [50
rare quality that he would not have had me known ^ of,
I, like a venturous youth, rid him into the deep pond at
the town's end. I was no sooner in the middle of the
pond, but my horse vanished away, and I sat upon a
bottle of hay, never so near drowning in my life. But
rU seek out my Doctor, and have my forty dollars again,
or ril make it the dearest horse ! — O, yonder is his
snipper-snapper. — Do you hear ? you hey-pass,^ where's
your master ?

1 Dr. Lopez, physician to Queen Elizabeth. He was banged in
1594 for attempting to poison the Queen. The best account of him is to
be found in an article by Mr. S. L. Lee on The Original of Skylock^
Gentleman's Magaxine^ February i88a Marlowe was dead before the
doctor came into notoriety.

• So eds. 1604, 1609. Ward compares Othello^ iiL 3, 119^ "where
the folios read, ' Be not acknown on*t/ and the first and third quartos.
' Be not you known on't,' t.e. be not you aware of it**

s A juggler's term, like *' presto, fly.** Henoe applied to the juggler
himself.

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SCENE XI.1 Doctor Faustus. 267

MepK Why, sir, what would you ? You cannot speak
with him. 61

Horse- C, But I will speak with him.
Meph. Why, he's fast asleep^ Come some other time.

Horse- C. Ill speak with him now, or Til break his
glass windows about his ears.

Meph, I tell thee he has not slept this eight nights.

Horse- C. An he have not slept this eight weeks I'll
speak with him.

M^h. See where he is, fast asleep.

Horse- C. I, this is he. God save you. Master Doctor,
Master Doctor, Master Doctor Fustian ! — forty dollars,
forty dollars for a bottle of hay ! 7^

Meph, Why, thou seest he hears thee not

Horse- C. So ho, ho ! — so ho, ho ! [Hollas in his ear,]
No, will you not wake ? I'll make you wake ere I go.
[Pulls Faustus dy the leg^ and pulls it away,] Alas, I
am undone 1 What shall I do P

Faust. O my leg, my leg ! Help, Mephistophilis ! call
the officers. My leg, my leg !

Meph. Come, villain, to the constable. So

Horse- C. O lord, sir, let me go, and I'll give you forty
dollars more.

Meph. Where be they?

Horse- C. I have none about me. Come to my ostry ^
and I'll give them you.

Meph. Begone quickly. [Horse- Courser runs away.

Faust. What, is he gone ? Farewell he ! Faustus has

1 Hostelxy, ina.

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268 The Tragical History of [scene xil

his leg again, and the horse-courser, I take it, a bottle
of hay for his labour. Well, this trick shall cost him
forty dollars more. 9^

Enter Wagner.
How now, Wagner, what's the news with thee ?

Wag. Sir, the Duke of Vanholt doth earnestly entreat
your company.

Faust The Duke of Vanholt ! an honourable gentle-
man, to whom I must be no niggard of my cunning.
Come, Mephistophilis, let's away to him. \Exmni}

SCENE XIL

Enier^ the Duke of Vanholt, the Duchess,
Faustus, and Mephistophilis.

Duke. Believe me. Master Doctor, this merriment
hath much pleased me.

Faust. My gracious lord, I am glad it contents you so
well — But it may be, madam, you take no delight in
this. I have heard that great-bellied women do long for
some dainties or other: what is it, madam? tell me, and
you shall have it

Duchess. Thanks, good Master Doctor ; and for I see
your courteous intent to pleasure me, I will not hide

1 In ed. i6i6 there follows a scene in which the hoise-courser relates
to an ale-house audience how he had been cozened by Faustns. See
Appendix.

* Scene : court of the Duke of Vanholt The fezt of ed. z6i6 is
given in the Appendix,

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sciNExii.] Doctor Fausius. 269

from 70U the thing my heart desires ; and were it now
sinnmer, as it is January and the dead time of the
winter, I would desire no better meat than a dish of ripe
grapes. 13

Faust Alas, madam, that's nothing ! Mephistophilis,
begone. \Exit Mephistophilis. ] Were it a greater thing
than this, so it would content you, you should have it

Re-enter Msphistophilis with grapes.

Here they be^ madam; wilt please you taste on them?

Duke. Believe me, Master Doctor, this makes me
wonder above the rest, that being in the dead time of
winter, and in the month of January, how you should
come by these grapes ? 21

Faust. If it like your grace, the year is divided into
two circles over the whole world, that, when it is here
winter with us, in the contrary circle it is summer with
them, as in India, Saba, and fkrther countries in the East;
and by means of a swift Spirit that I have I had them
brought hither, as you see. — How do you like them,
madam ; be they good ?

Duchess. Believe me, Master Doctor, they be the best
grapes that ever I tasted in my life before. 30

Faust. I am glad they content you so, madam.

Duke. Come^ madam, let us in, where you must well
reward this learned man for the great kindness he hath
showed to you.

Duchess. And so I will, my lord ; and, whilst I live,
rest beholding for this courtesy.

Faust. I humbly thank your grace.

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270 The Tragical History of [scene xm.

Duke. Come, Master Doctor, follow us and receive
your reward \Exeuni.

SCENE XIII.
Enier^ Wagner.
Wag. I think my master shortly* means to die.
For he hath given to me all his goods :
And yet, methinks, if that death were [so] near.
He would not banquet, and carouse and swill
Amongst the students, as even now he doth,
Who are at supper with such belly cheer
As Wagner ne'er beheld in all his life.
See where they come ! belike the feast is ended. \ExiL

SCENE XIV.

Enter^ Faustus, with two or three Scholars and

Mephistophilis.

1st SchoL Master Doctor Faustus, since our conference

about fair ladies, which was the beautifuUest in all the

world, we have determined with ourselves that Helen of

Greece was the admirablest lady that ever lived : there-

1 Scene : a room in Faustus' house. Ed. i6x6 reads : —
' ' Thunder and lightning. Enter Devils with covered dishes ; Mephis-
tophilis leads them into Faustus* study; then enter Wagnes.
" Wag. I think my master means to die shortly ; be has made his will,
and given me his wealth, his house, his goods, and store of golden plate,
besides two thousand ducats ready-coined. I wonder what he means :
if death were nigh, he would not frolic thus. He's now at supper with
the scholars, where there's such belly cheer as Wagner in his life ne'er
saw the like : and, see where they come 1 belike the feast is done. [ExitJ'

* I have adopted Cunningham's obvious correction. Eds. 1604, 2609,
'* means to die shortly."

* Scene : a room in Faustus' hotue;

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SCENE XIV.] Doctor Fauslus. 271

fore, Master Doctor, if you will do us that favour, as to
let us see that peerless dame of Greece, whom all the
world admires for majesty, we should think ourselves
much beholding unto you.

Faust Gentlemen,
For that I know your friendship is unfeigned, 10

And Faustus' custom is not to deny
The just requests of those that wish him well,
You shall behold that peerless dame of Greece,
No otherways for pomp and majesty,
Than when Sir Paris crossed the seas with her,
And brought the spoils ^ to rich Dardania.
Be silent, then, for danger is in words.

[Music sounds^ and HmsETX^ fasseth aver the stage.

2nd SchoL Too simple is my wit to tell her praise.
Whom all the world admires for majesty.*

1 Perhaps an allusion to the legend that Paris when canying off
Helen plundered Sparta.

^ Dyce quotes from the prose History of Dr. Pausius the following
description of Helen : —

" This lady appeared before them in a roost rich gowne of purple
velvet, costly imbrodiered ; her haire hanged downe loose, as faire as the
beaten gold, and of such length that it reached downe to her hammes ;
having most amorous cole-black ejres, a sweet and pleasant round face,
with lips as red as a cherry ; her cheekes of a rose colour, her mouth
small, her neck white like a swan ; tall and slender of personage ; in
summe, there was no imperfect place in her : she looked round about
with a rolling hawkes eye, a smiling and wanton countenance, which
neer&-hand inflamed the hearts of all the students ; but that they per-
swaded themselves she was a spirit, which made them lightly passe away
such fancies."

* Ed. x6i6 reads :—

**Md SchoL Was this fair Helen, whose admirM worth
Made Greece with ten years' wars afflict poor Ttoy?

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272 The Tragical History of [scene xm.

ird SchoL No marvel though the angry Greeks pur-
sued 30
With ten years' war the rape of such a Queen,
Whose heavenly beauty passeth all compare.

1st SchoL Since we have seen the pride of Nature's
works,
And only paragon of excellence,
Let us depart ; and for this glorious deed
Happy and blest be Faustua evermore.
Faustus. Gentlemen, £Eurewell — the same I wish yoa

[Exeunt Scholars.
Enter an Old Man.
Old Man.^ Ah, Doctor Faustus, that I might prevail
To guide thy steps unto the way of life,

" yd Schol, Too simple is my wit to tell ber worth,
Whom all the world admires for majesty.

" ist SchoL Now we have seen the pride of Nature's woric,
Well take our leaves ; and for this blessM sight," &g;
1 In ed. i6i6 this speech runs as follows t—

" Old Mam, O gentle Faustus, leave this damoM art.
This magic, that will charm thy soul to hell.
And quite bereave thee of salvation !
Though thou hast now offended like a man,
Do not peis^ver in it like a devU :
Yet, yet thou hast an amiable soul.
If sin by custom grow not into nature ;
Then, Faustus, will repentance come too late ;
Then thou art banish*d from the sight of Heaven :
No mortal can express the pains of helL
It may be, this my exhortation
Seems harsh and all unpleasant : let it not ;
For, gentle son, I speak it not in wrath.
Or envy of thee, but in tender love.
And pity of thy future misery ;
And so have hope that this my kind rebuke.
Checking thy body, may amend thy soul,"

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SCENE xiv.j Doctor Faustus. 273

By which sweet path thou mayst attain the goal 30

That shall conduct thee to celestial rest !

Break heart, drop blood, and mingle it with tears,

Tears falling from repentant heaviness

Of thy most vild and loathsome filthiness.

The stench whereof corrupts the inward soul

With such flagitious crimes of heinous sins

As no commiseration may expel.

But Mercy, Faustus, of thy Saviour sweet.

Whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt.

Fausi, Where art thou, Faustus? wretch, what hast
thou done? 40

Damned ^ art thou, Faustus, damned ; despair and die !
Hell calls ^ for right, and with a roaring voice
Says " Faustus ! come ! thine hour is almost come I "
And Faustus now * will come to do thee right.

[Mephistophilis gives him a dagger.

Old Man. Ah stay, good Faustus, stay thy desperate
steps !
I see an angel hovers o'er thy head,
And, with a vial full of precious grace.
Offers to pour the same into thy soul :
Then call for Mercy, and avoid Despair.

Fayst Ah,* my sweet friend, I feel 50

Thy words do comfort my distressed souL
Leave me a while to ponder on my sins.

1 This line is omitted in ed. x6i6. ^

a Ed. x6i6 " Hell claims his right."

* So ed. 1616.— Omitted in ed. 1604.

* Ed. x6i6 "Oh. friend, I feel."

VOL. L S

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2 74 I'he Tragical History of [sc«nk xiv.

Old Man. I ^ go, sweet Faustus, but with heavy cheer,
Fearing the ruin of thy hopeless souL \EMt>

Faust. Accursed ^ Faustus, where is Mercy now ?
I do repent ; and yet I do despair :
Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast :
What shall I do to shun the snares of death ?

Meph, Thou traitor, Faustus, I arrest thy soul
For disobedience to my sovereign Lord ; 60

Revolt, or I'll in piecemeal tear thy flesh.

Faust Sweet * Mephistophilis, entreat thy lord
To pardon my unjust presumption.
And with my blood again I will confirm
My former vow I made to Lucifer.

Mefh, Do it then quickly, with unfeigned heart,
Lest greater danger do attend thy drift

[Faustus stabs his arm and writes with his biood on a
paper,^

Faust. Torment, sweet friend, that base and crookM

That durst dissuade me from thy Lucifer,

With greatest torments that our Hell affords. 70

Meph, His faith is great : I cannot touch his soul ;
But what I may afliict his body with
I will attempt, which is but little worth.

1 E<L 1616,—

'* Faustus, I leave thee, but with grief of heart.
Fearing the enemy of thy hapless soul.**
s Ed. x6i6 "AccursM Faustus, Mrretch, what hast thou done?**

* Before this line ed. z6z6 inserts " 1 do repent I e*er offended him."
^ Thisstage-direction isnot in the old copies: it was suggested by Dyce.

• Ed. x6i6 *' that base and aged man«''

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SCENE XIV.] Doctor Faustus. 275

Faust One * thing, gcx)d servant, let me crave of thee,
To glut the longing of my heart's desire, —
That I might have unto my paramour
That heavenly Helen, which I saw of late.
Whose sweet embracings may extinguish clean
These thoughts that do dissuade me from my vow,
And keep mine oath I made to Lucifer. 80

Meph, Faustus, this or what else thou shalt desire
Shall be performed in twinkling of an eye.
Re-enter Helen.

Faust Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless * towers of Ilium ?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. [Kisses her.

1 Dyce quotes from the prose History of Dr, Faustus ; —

"To the ends that this miserable Faustus might fill the lust of his
flesh and live in all manner of voluptuous pleasure, it came in his mind,
after he had slept his first sleepe, and in the 33 year past of his time,
that he had a great desire to lye with faire Helena of Greece, especially
her whom he had seen and shewed unto the students at Wittenberg :
wherefore he called unto his spirit Mephostophilis, commanding him
to bring to him the faire Helena ; which he also did. Whereupon he
feU in love with her, and made her his common concubine and bed-
fellow ; for she was so beautifull and delightful] a peece, that he could
not be one houre from her, if he should therefore have suffered death,
she had so stoln away his heart : and to his seeming, in time she was with
childe, whom Faustus named Justus Faustus. The child told Doctor
Faustus many things which were don in forraign countrys ; but in the
end, when Faustus lost his life, the mother and the child vanished away
both together."

s So Fletcher {Bonduca, iii. a) :—

" Loud Fame calls ye,
Pitched on the topless Apennine. "

Shakespeare surely remembered the preceding line when he wrote of
Helen in Troilus and Cressida^ ii. a : —

"Why, she is a pearl
Whose price hath launch' d above a thousand ships,^^

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276 The Tragical History of [scene xv.

Her lips sucks forth my soul ; see where it flies I —

Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.

Here will I dwell, for Heaven is ^ in these lips,

And all is dross that is not Helena.

I will be Paris, and for love of thee, 90

Instead of Troy, shall Wertenberg be sacked :

And I will combat with weak Menelaus,

And wear thy colours on my plumbd crest :

Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,

And then return to Helen for a kiss.

Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air

Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars ;

Brighter are thou than flaming Jupiter

When he appeared to hapless Semele :

More lovely than the monarch of the sky 100

In wanton Arethusa's azur'd * arms ;

And none but thou shalt be my paramour I \Exeunt}

SCENE XV.

AccursM Faustus, miserable man.

That from thy soul exclud'st the Grace of Heaven,

And fly'st the throne of his tribunal seat !

1 Socd. 1616.— Eds. 1604, 1609, *'be."

* Ed. 1616 ** axorCi ** The form " azur'd ** is found in Shakespeare and
Dra3rton.

* For what follows in ed. x6z6 see Appendix,

^ Eyidently this is a new scene, though none of the editors has so
printed it. The scene is laid in a room of Faustus* house, whither
the Old Man has come to exhort Faustus to repentance;

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SCENE xvL] Doctor Faustus. 277

Enter Devils.
Satan begins to sift me with his pride :
As in this furnace' God shall try my faith,
My fisdth, vile Hell, shall triumph over thee.
Ambitious fiends I see how the heavens smile
At your repulse, and leave your state to scorn I
Hence, Hell ! for hence I fly unto my God.

\Exeunt on ont side Devils — on the other ^ Old Man.

SCENE XVI.
Enter ^ Faustus with Scholars.

Faust. Ah, gentlemen !

xst Schol. What ails Faustus ?

Faust, Ah, my sweet chamber fellow, had I lived with
thee, then had I lived still! but now I die eternally.
Look, comes he not, comes he not ?

2nd SchoL What means Faustus ?

yd SchoL Belike he is grown into some sickness by
being over solitary.

\st SchoL If it be so, we'll have physicians to cure him.
Tis but a surfeit Never fear, man. 10

Faust. A surfeit of deadly sin that hath damned both
body and souL

and SchoL Yet, Faustus, look up to Heaven : remember
God's mercies are infinite.

Faust. But Faustus' offences can never be pardoned :
the serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not

^ The additions made to thb scene in ed. 1616 are given In the
Appendix,

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278 The Tragical History of [scene xvi.

Faustus. Ah, gentlemen, hear me with patience, and
tremble not at my speeches ! Though my heart pants
and quivers to remember that I have been a student here
these thirty years, oh, would I had never seen Wertenberg,
never read book ! and what wonders I have done, all Ger-
many can witness, yea, all the world ; for which Faustus
hath lost both Germany and the world, yea Heaven itself,
Heaven, the seat of God, the throne of the blessed, the
kingdom of joy \ and must remain in Hell for ever. Hell,
ah. Hell, for ever ! Sweet friends i what shall become of
Faustus being in Hell for ever ? 27

yd SchoL Yet, Faustus, call on God

Faust, On God, whom Faustus hath abjured! on
God, whom Faustus hath blasphemed ! Ah, my God, I
would weep, but the Devil draws in my tears. Gush
forth blood instead of tears ! Yea, life and soul I Oh,
he stays my tongue 1 I would lift up my hands, but see^
they hold them, they hold them !

AIL Who, Faustus?

Faust Lucifer and Mephistophilis. Ah, gendemen, I
gave them my soul for my cunning !

AU. God forbid !

Faust God forbade it indeed ; but Faustus hath done
it : for vain pleasure of twenty-four years hath Faustus
lost eternal joy and felicity. I writ them a bill with nine
own blood : the date is expired; the time will com^ and
he wiU fetch me. 43

\5t SchoL Why did not Faustus tell us of this before,
that divines might have prayed for thee?

Faust Oft have I thought to have done so ; but the

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SCENE XVI.] Doctor Faustus. 279

devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God ; to
fetch both body and soul if I once gave ear to divinity :
and now 'tis too late. Gentlemen, away ! lest you perish
with me. 50

2nd SchoL Oh, what shall we do to save * Faustus ?

Faust Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and depart

ird SchoL God will strengthen me. I will stay with
Faustus.

xsi SchoL Tempt not God, sweet friend ; but let us
into the next room, and there pray for him.

Faust I, pray for me, pray for me ! and what noise
soever you hear, come not unto me, for nothing can
rescue me.

2nd SchoL Pray thou, and we will pray that God may
have mercy upon thee. 61

Faust Gentlemen, farewell : if I live till morning I'll
visit you : if not Faustus is gone to HelL

AIL Faustus, farewell

\Exeunt Scholars. The clock strikes eleven.

Faust Ah, Faustus,

Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damned perpetually !
Stand, still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come ;
Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again and make .. 70

Perpetual day \ or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day.
That Faustus may repent and save his soul !

1 So ed. i6z6.— Omitted in ed. 1604.

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28o The Tragical History of [scene xvi.

O lente^ lente^ curriie noctis equil^ "
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.
O, I'll leap up to * my God ! Who pulls me down ?
Se^' see where Christ's blood streams in the firma-
ment 1
One ^ drop would save my soul — ^half a drop : ah, my

Christ !
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ ! 80

Yet will I call on him : O spare me, Lucifer ! —
Where * is it now ? 'tis gone ; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brow !
Mountains and hills come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God ! •
Nol^no!
Then will I headlong run into the earth ;

1 " By an exquisite touch of nature— the brain involuntarily summon-
ing words employed for other purposes in happier hours — he cries aloud
the line which Ovid whispered in Corinna's arms."—/. A, Symonds,
(It would be hypercritical to note that Ovid gives the words to Aurora :—
" At si, quem malls, cephalum complexa teneres,
Clamares ' lente currite noctis equi. ' '*

--Amorts, u 13, U. 39-40.)
« Ed. 1616 " to Heaven."

* Ed. i6ao " See where," &c (The line is omitted in ed. 1616.)
< Ed. 1616 :—

** One drop of blood will save me : O my Christ I
Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ ! "
» Ed. 1616:—

*' Where is it now ? 'tis gone :
And see a threatening arm, an angry brow 1'*

• Ed. 1616 *' heaven."— Cf. /fosea z. 8 :— " And they shall say to the
mountains, Cover us, and to the hills. Fall on us."

7 The word " No" is not repeated in ed. x6i6.

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scKNB xvj,] Doctor Faustus. 281

Earth ^ gape ! O no, it will not harbour me !

You stars that reigned at my nativity,

Whose influence hath .allotted Death and Hell, 90

Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist

Into the entrails of yon labouring doud,^

That when you vomit forth into the air,

My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,

So that my soul may but ascend to Heaven.

\Th€ clock strikes the hcUf-hour.
Ah, half the hour is past ! 'twill all be past anon !
0«God!

If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ's sake whose blood hath ransomed

me.
Impose some end to my incessant pain ; 100

Let Faustus live in Hell a thousand years —
A hundred thousand, and — ^at last — be saved !
O, no end is limited to danm^d souls !
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul ?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast ?
Ah, Pythagoras' Metempsychosis ! were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be changed
Unto some brutish beast ! all beasts are happy,
For, when they die.

1 Ed. 1616 "Gape, earth."

* Dyce suggests that we should read ' * douds " for " cloud," and " they
vomit forth . . . from their smoky mouths.**
» Ed. 1616 :—

' * O if my soul must suffer for my sin.
Impose some end," ftc.

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282 The Tragical History of [scene xvt

Their souls are soon dissolved in elements ; no

But mine roust live, still to be plagued in HelL
Curst be the parents that engendered me !
No, Faustus : curse thyself: curse Lucifer
That hath deprived thee of the joys of Heaven.

\The dock strikes twdve,
O, it strikes, it strikes ! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to Hell.

{Thunder and lightning.
O soul, be chang'd into little water-drops,
And fall into the ocean — ne'er be found.

[^«/itfr Devils.

My God ! * my God ! look not so fierce on me !
Adders and serpents, let me breathe awhile ! 120

Ugly Hell, gape not ! come not, Lucifer !
I'll bum my books ! * — ^Ah, Mephistophilis !

\Exeunt Devils with Faustus.^
Enter Chorus.

Chorus, Cut is the branch that might have grown full
straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this leamM man.
Faustus is gone ; regard his hellish isiSX^
Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise

I For " My God 1 my God 1 " ed. 1616 reads '*0 mercy, heaven ! **

* *' So the Ephesians * burnt their books * after St. Paul's preaching,
Acts xlx. xf^^^-^Wagner.

* In ed. z6x6 a scene between the scholars foUows. See Appendix,

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SCENE XVI.] Doctor Faustus. 283

Only to wonder at unlawful things,

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To practise more than heaven by power permits. [Exit

Terminat hora diem ; terminat author'^ opus.

1 Ed. x6i6 " auctor." Mottoes are not tmcommonly found at the end
of old plays. The motto in the text is found inscribed at the end of the
DistracUi Emperor (an anonymous tragi-comedy printed for the first
time in vol. iii. of my Collection of Old Plays),

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( 284 )

APPENDIX TO DR. FAUSTUS.

Scene 4 as printed in the 1616 quarto : —

Enter Wagner and the Clown.

Wag. Come hither, sirrah boy I

down. Boy ! O ! disgrace to my person ! Zounds !
boy in your face ! you have seen many boys with beards,
I am sure.

Wag. Sirrah, hast thou no comings in ?

Clown. Yes, and goings out too, you may see, sir.

Wag. Alas, poor slave ! see how poverty jests in his
nakedness ! I know the villain's out of service, and so
hungry that I know he would give his soul to the devil
for a shoulder of mutton, though it were blood raw.

Clown. Not so neither; I had need to have it well
roasted, and good sauce to it, if I pay so dear, I can tell
you.

Wag. Sirrah, wilt thou be my man, and wait on me ?
and I will make thee go like Qui tnihi discipulus.

Clown. What, in verse ?

Wag. No, slave, in beaten silk and staves-acre.

Clown. Staves-acre ? that's good to kill vermin ; then
belike if I serve you I shall be lousy.

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SCENE IV.) Doctor Faustus. 285

Wag. Why, so thou shalt be whether thou dost it or
no : for, sirrah, if thou dost not presently bind thyself to
me for seven years, 111 turn all the lice about thee into
familiars, and make them tear thee in pieces.

Clown. Nay, sir, you may save yourself a labotu*, for
they are as familiar with me as if they paid for their meat
and drink, I can tell you.

Wag. Well,. sirrah, leave your jesting, and take these
guilders.

Clown. Yes, many, sir, and I thank you too.

Wag. So now thou art to be at an hour's warning
whensoever and wheresoever the devil shall fetch thee.

Clown. Here, take your guilders again. 111 none of 'em.

Wag. Not I, thou art pressed; prepare thyself, for
I will presently raise up two devils to carry thee away.
Banio! Belcher!

Clown. Belcher ! an' Belcher come here, I'll belch him ;
I am not afraid of a devil

Enter two Devils.

Wag. How now, sir, will you serve me now ?

Clown. I, good Wagner, take away the devil[s] thea

Wag. Spirits away ! now, sirrah, follow me.

\Exeunt Devils.

Clown. I will, sir ; but hark you, master, will you teach
me this conjuring occupation ?

Wag. I, sirrah, I'll teach thee to turn thyself to a dog,
or a cat, or a mouse, or a rat, or anything.

Clown. A dog, qr acat, or a mouse, or a rat ! O brave
Wagner!

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286 Appendix to [scene vi.

Wag. Villain, call me Master Wagner, and see that you
walk attentively, and let your right eye be always diame-
trally fixed upon my left heel, that thou mayest quasi
vestigias nostras insistere.

Clown. Well, sir, I warrant you. [Exeunt.

After Scene 6 the following scene is found in ed, 1616 :—
Enter Robin ^ with a book.

Robin. What, Dick ! look to the horses there till I
come again ; I have gotten one of Doctor Faustus' con-
juring books, and now we'll have such knavery as't passes.
Enter Dick.

Dick. What, Robin ! you must come away and walk
the horses.

Rob. I walk the horses I I scom't, faith ; I have other
matters in hand ; let the horses walk themselves an they
will A per se a; t h. e. the; per se o ; Demy orgpn
gorgon : keep further from me, O thou illiterate and un-
learned hostler I

Dick. 'Snails! what hast thou got there? a book!
why thou can'st not tell ne'er a word on'L

Rob. That thou shalt see presently : keep out of the
circle, I say, lest I send you into the ostry with a vengeance.

Dick. That's like, faith! you had best leave your
foolery, for an my master come, he'll conjure you, faith.

Rob. My master conjure me ! I'll tell thee what; an
my master come here, I'll clap as fair a pair of horns on
hb head, as e'er thou sawest in thy life.

1 Oldcds. "theclownc"

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SCENE VII.] Doctor Faustus. 287

Dick, Thou need'st not do that, for my mistress hath
done it.

Eob, I, there be of us here that have waded as deep
into matters as other men, if they were disposed to talk.

Dick, A plague take you^ I thought you did not sneak
up and down after her for nothing. But, I prithee, tell
me in good sadness, Robin, is that a conjuring book?

Hob. Do but speak what thou'lt have me to do, and
111 do't ; if thou'lt dance naked, put off thy clothes, and
I'll conjure thee about presently ; or if thou'lt go but to
the tavern with me, I'll give thee white wine, red wine,
claret wine, sack, muskadine, malmsey, and whippincrust;
hold, belly, hold ; and we'll not pay one penny for it

Dick. O brave ! Prithee let's to it presently, for I am
as dry as a dog.

liob. Come, then, let's away. [Exeunt.

Jn Scene 7, after I. 48, /V^ 161 6 ed. proceeds as
follows : —

Meph. Nay, stay, my Faustus ; I know you'd see the
Pope,
And take some part of holy Peter's feast,
The which in state ^ and high solemnity
This day is held through Rome and Italy,
In honour of the Pope's triumphant victory.

Jfaust. Sweet Mephistophilis, thou pleasest me ;
Whilst I am here on earth let me be cloyed
With all things that delight the heart of man :
My four-and-twenty years of liberty

I Soeds. 1620, 1624.— Ed. i6z6 "this day with.**

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288 Appendix to [scene vil

111 spend in pleasure and in dalliance,

That Faustus' name, whilst this bright frame doth stand,

May be admired through the furthest land

Meph, Tis well said, Faustus ; come then, stand by me.
And thou shalt see them come immediately.

Faust Nay, stay, my gentle Mephistophilis,
And grant me my request, and then I go.
Thou know'st within the compass of eight days,
We viewed the fece of heaven, of earth, and hell \
So high our dragons soared into the air.
That, looking down, the earth appeared to me
No bigger than my hand in quantity ;
There did we view the kingdoms of the world.
And what might please mine eye, I there beheld.
Then in this show let me an actor be,
That this proud Pope may Faustus* cunning ^ see.

Meph. Let it be so, my Faustus, but first stay,
And view their triumphs as they pass this way ;
And then devise what best contents thy mind,
By cunning in thine art to cross the Pc^e,
Or dash the pride of his solemnity ;
To make his monks and abbots stand like apes.
And point like antics at his triple crown !
To beat the beads about the friars' pates ;
Or clap huge horns upon the cardinals' heads ;
Or any villainy thou canst devise.
And I'll perform it, Faustus : hark ! they come :
This day shall make thee be admired in Rome.

^ So eds. i6ao^ 1624.— Ed. 1616 " comming.^

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SCENE viL] Doctor Faustus. '289

Enter the Cardinals and Bishops, some bearing crosiers^
some pillars; Monks and Friars singing their procession :
then the Pope, Raymond, King of Hungary y the Arch-
bishop OF Rheims, with Bruno led in chaitis.

Pope. Cast down our footstool.

Ray. Saxon Bruno stoop,
Whilst on thy back his holiness ascends
Saint Peter's chair and state pontifical

Bru, Proud Lucifer, that state belongs to me ;
But thus I fall to Peter, not to thee.

Pope. To me and Peter shalt thou grovelling lie.
And crouch before the papal dignity :
Sound trumpets then, for thus Saint Peter's heir
From Bruno's back ascends Saint Peter's chair.

\A flourish while he ascends.

Thus, as the gods creep on with feet of wool.
Long ere with iron hands they punish men,
So shall our sleeping vengeance now arise.
And smite with death thy hated enterprise.
Lord Cardinals of France and Padua,
Go forthwith to our holy consistory.
And read, amongst the statutes decretal,
What by the holy council held at Trent
The sacred synod hath decreed for him,
That doth assume the papal government
Without election, and a true consent :
Away, and bring us word with speed.

I Card. We go, my lord. [Exeunt Cardinals.

Pcpe. Lord Raymond.

VOL. I. T

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290 Appendix to [scene vh.

4

Faust Go, haste thee, gentle Mephistophilis,
Follow the Cardinals to the consistory ;
And as they turn their superstitious books,
Strike them with sloth and drowsy idleness ;
And make them sleep so sound, that in their shapes
Thyself and I may parley with this Pope,
This proud confronter of the Emperor,
And, in despite of all his holiness,
Restore this Bruno to his liberty,
And bear him to the states of Germany.

Meph. Faustus, I go.

Faust. Despatch it soon.
The Pope shall curse that Faustus came to Rome.

[Exeunt Faustus and Mephistophilis.

£ru. Pope Adrian, let me have right ^ of law.
I was elected by the Emperor.

Fop^. We will depose the Emperor for that deed,
And curse the people that submit to him :
Both he and thou shall ^ stand excommunicate.
And interdict from church's privilege,
And all society of holy men :
He grows too proud in his authority.
Lifting his lofty head above the clouds,
And like a steeple overpeers the church :
But we'll pull down his haughty insolence ;
And, as Pope Alexander, our progenitor.
Trod on the neck of German Frederick,
Adding this golden sentence to our praise,

1 So cds. 1620. 1624. —Ed. 1616 "some right."
s So eds. i6ao. 1624.— Ed. z6i6 ''sbaXU"

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sc»N» VII.] Doctor Faustus. 291

" That Peter's heirs should tread on Emperors,
And walk upon the dreadful adder's back,
Treading the lion and the dragon down.
And fearless spurn the killing basilisk;"
So will we quell that haughty schismatic,
And by authority apostolical
Depose him from his regal government

Bru. Pope Julius swore to princely Sigismond,
For him, and the succeeding Popes of Rome,
To hold the Emperors their lawful lords.

Pope. Pope Julius did abuse the church's rights,
And therefore none of his decrees can stand.
Is not all power on earth bestowed on us ?
And therefore, though we would, we cannot err.
Behold this silver belt, whereto is fixed
Seven golden seals, fast sealed with seven seals.
In token of our seven-fold power from heaven,
To bind or loose, lock fast, condemn or judge.
Resign or seal, or what so pleaseth us :
Then he and thou, and all the world, shall stoop,
Or be assured of our dreadful curse.
To light as heavy as the pains of hell

Enter Faustus and Mephistqphilis like the Cardinals.

Meph, Now tell me, Faustus, are we not fitted well ?

Faust, Yes, Mephistophilis, and two such Cardinals
Ne'er serv'd a holy Pope as we shall do.
But whilst they sleep within the consistory,
Let us salute his reverend fatherhood.

Ray. Behold, my lord, the Cardinals are returned.

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292 Appendix to [scene viu

Pope. Welcome, grave fathers; answer presently
What have our holy council there decreedi
Concerning Bruno and the Emperor,
In quittance of their late conspiracy,
Against our state and papal dignity?

Faust Most sacred patron of the Church of Rome,
By full consent of all the [holy] synod,
Of priests and prelates, it is thus decreed :
That Bruno, and the German Emperor,
Be held as Lollards and bold schismatics.
And proud disturbers of the church's peace :
And if that Bruno, by his own assent,
Without enforcement of the German peers.
Did seek to wear the triple diadem,
And by your death to climb St. Peter's chair.
The statutes decretal have thus decreed :
He shall be straight condemned of heresy,
And on a pile of faggots burnt to death.

Pope, It is enough : here, take him to your charge,
And bear him straight to Ponte ^ Angelo,
And in the strongest tower enclose him fast :
To-morrow, sitting in our consistory,
With all our college of grave cardinals,
We will determine of his life and death.
Here, take his triple crown along with you.
And leave it in the church's treasury.
Make haste, again, my good lord Cardinals,
And take our blessing apostolical

Meph. So, so ; was never devil thus blessed before.

I Oldeds. "Ponto."

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SCENE VII.] Doctor Faustus. 293

Fattst, Aw^Ljj sweet Mephistophilis, begone ;
The Cardinals will be plagued for this anon.

[Exeunt Faustus and Mephistophilis.

Pope, Go presently and bring a banquet forth,
That we may solemnise St Peter's feast,
And with Lord.Raymond, King of Hungary,
Drink to our late and happy victory. [Exeunt,

A sennet while the banquet is brought in ; and then enter
Faustus and Mephistophilis in their own shapes,

Meph, Now, Faustus, come, prepare thjrself for mirth ;
The sleepy Cardinals are hard at hand.
To censure Bruno, that is posted hence,
And on a proud paced steed, as swift as thought.
Flies o'er the Alps to fruitful Germany,
There to salute the woful Emperor.

Faust, The Pope will curse them for their sloth to-day.
That slept both Bruno and his crown away.
But, now that Faustus may delight his mind,
And by their folly make some merriment,
Sweet Mephistophilis, so charm me here,
That I may walk invisible to all,
And do whatever I please unseen of any.
Meph, Faustus, thou shalt ; then kneel down presently,

Whilst on thy head I lay my hand,

And charm thee with this magic wand ;

First, wear this girdle, then appear

Invisible to all are here ;

The planets seven, the gloomy air.

Hell, and the furies' forked hair ;

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294 Appendix to [scene vii.

Pluto's blue fire, and Hecat's tree,
With magic spells so compass thee^
That no eye may thy body see !
So, Faustus, now for all their holiness,
Do what thou wilt, thou shalt not be discerned.

Faust Thanks, Mephbtophilis ; now, friars, take heed,
Lest Faustus make your shaven crowns to bleed
Meph, Faustus, no more: see where the Cardinals
come.

Enter the Cardinals with a book.

Pope, Welcome, Lord Cardinals ; come, sit down ;
Lord Raymond, take your seat ; friars, attend
And see that all things be in readiness,
As best beseems this solemn festival

I Card, First, may it please your sacred holiness,
To view the sentence of the reverend synod,
Concerning Bruno and the Emperor.

Pope. What needs this question ? Did I not tell you,
To-morrow we would sit 1' the consistory,
And there determine of his punishment?
You brought us word even now, it was decreed,
That Bruno, and the cursed Emperor,
Were by the holy council both condemned.
For loathM Lollards, and base schismatics :
Then wherefore would you have me view that book ?

I Card. Your grace mistakes, you gave us no such
charge.

Ray. Deny it not : we all are witnesses
That Bruno here was late delivered you,

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SCENE VII.] Doctor Fausius. 295

With his rich triple crown to be reserved,
And put into the church's treasury.

Both Card, By holy Paul we saw them not !

Pofe, By Peter you shall die,
Unless you bring them forth immediately !
Hale them to prison, lade their limbs with gyves :
False prelates, for this hateful treachery,
Cursed be your souls to hellish misery I

\Exeuni Attendants with the Cardinals.

Faust So they are safe ; now, Faustus, to the feast ;
The Pope had never such a frolic guest.

Fope, Lord Archbishop of Rheims, sit down with us.

Arch.^ I thank your holiness.^

Faust. Fall to; the devil choke you, an you spare. V

Fope, Who is that spoke ? Friars, look about
Lord Raymond, pray fall to : I am beholding
To the Bishop of Millaine for this so rare a present.

Faust, I thank you, sir. \Snatches the dish.

Fope. How now ! Who snatched the meat from me ?
Villains ! why speak you not ?

My good Lord Archbishop, here's a most dainty dish,|
Was sent me from a Cardinal in France.
, Faust. Ill have that toa [Snatches the dish.

Fope. What Lollards do attend our holiness.
That we receive such great indignity ?
Fetch me some wine.

Faust. I, pray do, for Faustus is a-dry.

Fope, Lord Raymond, I drink unto your grace.

Fa$ist. I pledge your grace. [Snatches the cup.

» Oldcds. "J9MA.'*and ''BisJ^."*

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296 Appendix to [scene vil

Pope. My wine gone too ! Ye lubbers, look about
And find the man that doth this villainy,
Or by our sanctitude you all shall die.
I pray, my lords, have patience at this
Troublesome banquet

Arch. Please it your Holiness, I think it be some
ghost crept out of Fuigatory, and now is come unto your
Holiness for his pardon.

Pope. It may be so.
Go then, command our priests to sing a diige.
To lay the fury of this troublesome ghost

[Exit Attendant llu Pops erosus himself.

Faust, How now !
Must every bit be spicfed with a cross ?
Nay, then, take that [Gives M Pope a buffet

Pope. O, I am slain 1 help me, my lords I
O come and help to bear my body hence !
Damned be his ^ soul for ever for this deed 1

\Exeuni Pope and his train.

Meph. Now, Faustus, what will you do now? For I
can tell you you'll be cursed with bell, book, and candle.

Faust. Bell, book, and candle ; candle, book, and bell.
Forward and backward, to cuise Faustus to hell !

Enter the Friars with bell^ hook^ and candie^for the dirge.

I Friar. Come, brethren, let's about our business with
good devotion. [They sing.

Cursed be he that stole his Holiness' meat from the table.
1 So eds. z6ao^ 1604.— Ed. 1616 "this.**

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SCENE IX.] Doctor Faustus. 297

McUedicai Dominus,
Cursed be he that struck his Holiness a blow on the face.

Maledicat Dominus.
Cursed be he that struck Friar Sandelo a blow on the pate.

Maledicat Dominus,
Cursed be he that disturbeth our holy dirge

Maledicat Dominus,
Cursed be he that took away his Holiness* wine.

Maledicat Dominus,
[They beat the Yraax^ fling fireworks among them^
and exeunt.

Scene 9 in ed. 1616 runs as follows: —

Enter Robin and Dick with a cup,

Dick, Sirrah Robin t we were best look that your devil
can answer the stealing of this same cup, for the vintner's
boy follows us at the hard heels.

Rob, Tis no matter, let him come ; an he follow us,
111 so conjure him as he was never conjured in his life,
I warrant him : let me see the cup.

Dick, Here 'tis : yonder he comes. Now, Robin, now
or never show thy cunning.

Enter Vintner.

Vint. Oh, are you here ? I am glad I have found you ;
you are a couple of fine companions : pray where's the
cup you stole from the tavern ?

Rob. How, how ! we steal a cup I take heed what you
say ; we look not like cup stealers, I can tell you.

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298 Appendix to [scene ix.

Vint Never deny't, for I know you have it, and 111
search you.

Rob, Search me ? I, and spare not — Hold the cup,
Dick — Come, come, search me, search me.

[Vintner searches him.

Vint Come on, sirrah, let me search you now.

Dick. I, I, do, do — Hold the cup, Robin— I fear not
your searching ; we scorn to steal your cups, I can tell
you. [Vintner searches him.

Vint. Never outface me for the matter ; for sure the
cup is between you two.

Rob. Nay, there you lie, 'tis beyond us both.

Vint A plague take you, I thought 'tnras your knavery
to take it away : come, give it me again.

Rob. I, much I when can you tell ? — Dick, make me
a circle, and stand close at my back, and stir not for thy
life. — Vintner, you shall have your cup anon; say nothing,
Dick : [Rectdsfrom his book!] O per se^ O; Demogorgon ;
Belcher and Mephistophilis !

Enter Mephistophius.

Meph. You princely legions of infernal rule,
How am I vexbd by these villains' charms !
From Constantinople have they brought me now.
Only for pleasure of these damnM slaves.

Rob. By lady, sir, you have had a shrewd journey of
it! will it please you to take a shoulder of mutton to
supper, and a tester in your purse, and go back again ?

Dick. I, I pray you heartily, sir; for we called you
but in jest, I promise you.

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SCENE IX.1 Doctor Faustus. 299

Meph, To purge the rashness of this cursed deed,
First, be thou tumM to this ugly shape ;
For apish deeds transformed to an ape.

liob. O brave ! an ape ! I pray, sir, let me have the
carrying of him about to show some tricks.

Mefh. And so thou shalt : be thou transformed to a
dog, and carry him upon thy back ; away I begone I

Rob, A dog ! That's excellent ! let the maids look well
to their porridge-pots, for 111 into the kitchen presently :
come, Dick, come. [Exeunt the two Clowns.

Meph. Now with the flames of ever-burning fire,
m wing myself, and forthwith fly amain
Unto my Faustus to the Great Turk's court [Exit,

After Scene 9 is found in ed, 16 16 the following
scene: —

Enter Martino and Frederick at several doors.

Mart. What ho ! officers, gentlemen !
Hie to the presence to attend the Emperor ;
Good Frederick, see the rooms be voided straight,
His majesty is coming to the hall ;
Go back, and see the state in readiness.

Fred But where is Bruno, our elected Pope,
That on a fury's back came post from Rome ?
Will not his grace consort the Emperor ?

Mart. O yes : and with him comes the German conjurer.
The learned Faustus, feme of Wittenberg;
The wonder of the world for magic art :
And he intends to show great Carolus

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300 Appendix to [sckne ix^.

The race of all his stout progenitors ;
And bring in presence of his majesty,
The royal shapes, and perfect semblances,
Of Alexander and his beauteous paramour.

Fred. Where is Benvolio?

Mart, Fast asleep, I warrant you ;
He took his rouse with stoups of Rhenish wine
So kindly yesternight to Bruno's health,
That all this day the sluggard keeps his bed

Frtd. See, see, his window's ope ! well call to him.

Mart, What ho 1 Benvolio 1

Enter Benvolio above^ ai a window^ in his nightcap ;
buttoning,

Benv. What a devil ail you two ?

Mart. Speak softly, sir, lest the devil hear you :
For Faustus at the court is late arrived.
And at his heels a thousand Furies wait,
To accomplish whatsoever the Doctor please.

Benv. What of this?

Mart. Come, leave thy chamber first, and thou shalt
see
This conjurer perform such rare exploits.
Before the Pope and royal Emperor,
As never yet was seen in Germany.

Benv. Has not the Pope enough of conjuring yet ?
He was upon the devil's back late enough ;
An if he be so far in love with him,
I would he would post with him to Rome again.

Fred. Speak, wilt thou come and see this sport ?

Benv. Not I.

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SCENE X.] Doctor Faustus. 301

Mart. Wilt thou stand in thy window and see it then ?

Benv. I, an I fall not asleep i' the mean time.

Mart, The Emperor is at hand, who comes to see
What wonders by black spells may compassed be.

Benv. Well, go you attend the Emperor : I am content
for this once to thrust my head out at a window : for they
say, if a man be drunk over-night, the devil cannot hurt
him in the morning : if that be true, I have a charm in
my head shall control him as well as the conjurer, I
warrant you. [Exeunt Frederick and Martino.

Scene 10 is versified in ed, 1616 as follows: —

A sennet — Enter Charles, the German Emperor^ Bruno,
Saxony, Faustus, Mephistophilis, Frederick,
Martino, and Attendants.

Emp. Wonder of men, renowned magician,
Thrice-learned Faustus, welcome to our court
This deed of thine, in setting Bruno free
From his and our professM enemy.
Shall add more excellence unto thine art
Than if by powerful necromantic spells
Thou could'st command the world's obedience ;
For ever be beloved of Carolus ;
And if this Bruno thou hast late redeemed
In peace possess the triple diadem,
And sit in Peter's chair despite of chancei
Thou shall be famous through all Italy,
And honoured of the German Emperor.

Faust. These gracious words, most royal CaroluSi

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302 Appendix to [scknk x.

Shall make poor Faustus, to his utmost power.

Both love and serve the German Emperor,

And lay his life at holy Bruno's feet :

For proof whereof, if so your grace be pleased.

The Doctor stands prepared by power of art

To cast his magic charms, that shall pierce through

The ebon gates of ever-burning hell,

And hale the stubborn Furies from their caves,

To compass whatsoe'er your grace commands.

Benv. Blood, he speaks terribly I but for all that, I do
not greatly believe him ; he looks as like [a] conjurer as
the Pope to a costermonger.

Emp. Then, Faustus, as thou late didst promise us,
We would behold that famous conqueror,
Great Alexander, and his paramour,
In their true shapes and state majestical,
That we may wonder at their excellence.

Faust. Your majesty shall see them presently.
Mephistophilis, away ;

And with a solemn noise of trumpets' sound
Present before this royal Emperor
Great Alexander and his beauteous paramour.

Meph. Faustus, I will.

Beno. Well, Master Doctor, an your devils come not
away quickly, you shall have me asleep presently : zounds !
I could eat myself for anger, to think I have been such an
ass all this whUe, to stand gaping after the devil's governor,
and can see nothing.

Faust I'll make you feel something anon, if my art £3ul
me not \Asidc,

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sc«NB X.] Doctor Faustus. 303

My lord^ I must forewarn your majesty,
That when my spirits present the royal shapes
Of Alexander and his paramour,
Your grace demand no questions of the king ;
But in dumb silence let them come and ga
Emp. Be it as Faustus please, we are content
£env. I, I, and I am content too : an thou bring Alex-
ander and his paramour before the Emperor, 111 be
Actaeon, and turn myself to a stag.

Faust And 111 play Diana, and send you the horns
presently.

Sennet, — Enter at one door the Emperor Alexander, at
the other Darius; th^ meet; Darius is thrown
dawn ; Alexander kills him^ takes off his crown^ and
offering to go outyhisV2ii2J£LG\X£ meets him; heembraeeth
her^ and sets Darius' crown upon her head; and
coming hack^ both salute the Emperor, who^ leaving his
state^ offers to embrace them; which Faustus seeing^
suddenly stays him : then trumpets cease and music
sounds.

My gracious lord, you do forget yourself.
These are but shadows, not substantial

Emp. O pardon me, my thoughts are so ravished
With sight of this renownbd Emperor,
That in mine arms I would have compassed him ;
But, Faustus, since I may not speak to them,
To satbfy my longing thoughts at full,
Let me this tell thee : I have heard it said,
That this fair lady, whilst she lived on earth.

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304 Appendix to [scene x.

Had on her neck a little wart or mole ;
Now may I prove that saying to be true ?

Faust Your majesty may boldly go and see.

Emp, Faustus, I see it plain ;
And in this sight thou better pleasest me,
Than if I gained another monarchy.

Faust Away! begone! \Exit sh€W.'\ See, see, my
gracious lord! what strange beast is yon that thrusts
his head out at window.

Emp, O wondrous sight I see, Duke of Saxony,
Two spreading horns most strangely fastened
Upon the head of young Benvolio.

Sax, What, is he asleep or dead ?

Faust He sleeps, my lord, but dreams not of his horns.

Emp, This sport is excellent : well call and wake him.
What ho 1 Benvolio !

Benv, A plague upon you, let me sleep awhile.

Emp. I blame thee not to sleep much, having such a
head of thine own.

Sax, Look up, Benvolio, 'tis the Emperor calls.

Bern), The Emperor ! where ? O, zounds, my head !

Emp, Nay, an thy horns hold, 'tis no matter for thy
head, for that's armed sufficiently.

Faust Why, how now, sir knight? what, hanged by
the horns ? This [is] most horrible : fie, pull in your head
for shame ; let not all the world wonder at you.

Bern), Zounds, Doctor, is this your villainy !

Faust O say not so, sir, the Doctor has no skill 1
No art, no cunning, to present these lords,
Or bring before this royal Emperor

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SCENE X.] Doctor Faustus. 305

The mighty monarch, warlike Alexander :
If Faustus do it, you are straight resolved
In bold Actaeon's shape to turn a stag.
And therefore, my lord, so please your majesty,
I'll raise a kennel of hounds shall hunt him so,
As all his footmanship shall scarce prevail
To keep his carcase from their bloody fangs.
Ho ! Belimote, Argiron, Asterote 1

Benv, Hold, hold ! zounds ! he'll raise up a kennel of
devils, I think, anon: good my lord entreat for me;
'sblood, I am never able to endure these torments.

Emp, Then, good Mr.- Doctor,
Let me entreat you to remove his horns,
He has done penance now sufficiently.

Faust. My gracious lord ; not so much for injury done
to me, as to delight your majesty with some mirth, hath
Faustus justly requited this injurious knight ; which being
all I desire, I am content to remove his horns. Mephis-
tophilis, transform him ; and hereafter, su:, look you speak
well of scholars.

Benv» Speak well of ye ? 'Sblood, an scholars be such
cuckold-makers to clap horns of honest men's heads o'
this order, I'll ne'er trust smooth faces and small ruffs
more. But an I be not revenged for this, would I might
be turned to a gaping oyster, and drink nothing but salt
water. {Aside,

Emp, Come, Faustus, while the Emperor lives,
In recompense of this thy high desert,
Thou shalt command the state of Germany,
And live beloved of mighty Carolus. \Exeunt omnes.
VOL. I. u

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3o6 Appendix to [scene xa.

Then follow two scenes not found in the two earlier eds. : —

[Scene Xa.]
Enter Benvolio, Martino, Frederick, and Soldiers.

Mart. Nay, sweet Benvolio, let us sway thy thoughts
From this attempt against the conjurer.

Benv. Away, you love me not to urge me thus ;
Shall I let slip so great an injury,
When every servile groom jests at my wrongs,
And in their rustic gambols proudly say,
" Benvolio's head was graced with horns to-day ?"

may these eyelids never close again,

Till with my sword I have that conjurer slain :
If you will aid me in this enterprise,
Then draw your weapons and be resolute ;
If not, depart ; here will Benvolio die.
But Faustus' death shall quit my infamy.

Fred. Nay, we will stay with thee, betide what may,
And kill that doctor if he come this way.

Benv. Then, gentle Frederick, hie thee to the grove,
And place our servants and our followers,
Close in an ambush there behind the trees ;
By this I know the conjurer is near :

1 saw him kneel, and kiss the Emperor's hand,
And take his leave, laden with rich rewards :
Then, soldiers, boldly fight ; if Faustus die.
Take you the wealth, leave us the victory.

Fred. Come, soldiers, follow me unto the grove.
Who kills him shall have gold and endless love.

[Exit Frederick with Soldiers.

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scENB xn.] Doctor Fausius. 307

Benv. My head is lighter than it was by the horns,
But yet my heart more ponderous than my head,
And pants until I see that conjurer dead.

Mart. Where shall we place ourselves, Benvolio ?

Benv. Here will we stay to hide the first assault ;
O were that damned hell-hound but in place.
Thou soon should'st see me quit my foul disgrace !

Enter Frederick.
Fred, Close, close, the conjurer is at hand,
And all alone comes walking in his gown ;
Be ready then, and strike the peasant down.
Benv, Mine be that honour then : now, sword, strike
home.
For horns he gave 111 have his head anon.

Enter Faustus, with a false head.

Mart. See, see, he comes.

Benv. No words : this blow ends all ;
Hell take his soul, his body thus must fall.

Faust. O!

Fred. Groan you. Master Doctor ?

Benv, Break may his heart with groans : dear Frede-
rick, see.
Thus will I end his griefs immediately.

Mart. Strike with a willing hand ; his head is off.

[Benvolio strikes of Favstus's fa/se head.

Benv. The Devil's dead, the Furies now may laugh.

Fred. Was this that stern aspfect, that awful frown,
Made the grim monarch of infernal spirits
Tremble and quake at his commanding charms ?

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3o8 Appendix to [scene x*

Mart, Was this that damnM head, whose art^ conspired
Benvolio's shame before the Emperor ?

Benv. I, that's the head, and here the body lies,
Justly rewarded for his villanies.

Fred. Come, let's devise how we may add more shame
To the black scandal of his hated name.

Benv. First, on his head, in quittance of my wrongs,
I'll nail huge forked horns, and let them hang
Within the window where he yoked me first,
That all the world may see my just revenge.

Mart. What use shall we put his beard to ?

Benv. We'll sell it to a chimney-sweeper \ it will wear
out ten birchen brooms, I warrant you.

Fred, What shall [his] eyes do ?

Benv, Well put out his eyes ; and they shall serve for
buttons to his lips, to keep his tongue from catching cold.

Mart, An excellent policy: and now, sirs, having
divided him, what shall the body do ? [Faustus ^ up,

Bern), Zounds, the Devil's alive again !

Fred, Give him his head, for God's sake.

Faust, Nay, keep it: Faustus will have heads and
hands,
I, all * your hearts to recompense this deed.
Knew you not, traitors, I was limited
For four-and-twenty years to breathe on earth ?
And had you cut my body with your swords.
Or hewed this fiesh and bones as small as sand.
Yet in a minute had my spirit returned,
And I had breathed a man, made free from harm.

1 So Dyoe.-01d ods. " heart." « Old eds. " call."

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scENB xa] Doitor Faustus. 309

But wherefore do I dally my revenge ?
Asteroth, Belimoth, Mephistophilis !

Enter Mephistophilis and other Devils.
Go, horse these traitors on your fiery backs,
And mount aloft with them as high as heaven ;
Thence pitch them headlong to the lowest hell :
Yet, stay ; the world shall see their misery,
And hell shall after plague their treachery.
Go, Belimoth, and take this caitiff hence.
And hurl him in some lake of mud and dirt :
Take thou this other, drag him through the woods
Amongst the pricking thorns and sharpest briers ;
Whilst with my gentle Mephistophilis,
This traitor flies unto some steepy rock,
That rolling down may break the villain's bones.
As he intended to dismember me.
Fly hence ! despatch my charge immediately !

Fred, Pity us, gentle Faustus, save our lives !

Faust. Away!

Fred. He must needs go, that the devil drives.

[^Exeunt Spirits with the Knights.

Enter the ambushed Soldiers,
ist Sold. Come, sirs, prepare yourselves in readiness.
Make haste to help these noble gentlemen,
I heard them parley with the conjurer.

2nd Sold, See, where he comes ; despatch and kill the

slave.
Faust. What's here ? an ambush to betray my life !
Then, Faustus, try thy skill : base peasants, stand !

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3 1 o Appendix to scknb nb.

For lo, these trees remove at my command,

And stand as bulwarks 'twixt yourselves and me.

To shield me from your hated treachery :

Yet to encounter this your weak attempt,

Behold an army comes incontinent

[Faustus strikes the door} and enter a Devil play-
ing on a druniy after him another bearing an
ensign^ and divers with weapons; Mephisto-
PHiLis with fireworks. They set upon the Sol-
diers and drive them out

[Scene X3.]
Enter at several doors Benvouo, Frederick, and Mar-
TING, their heads and faces bloody and besmeared with
mud and dirt^ all having horns on their heads.

Mart, What ho ! Benvolio !

Benv, Here ; what, Frederick, ho !

Fred, O help me, gentle friend ; where is Martino ?

Mart, Dear Frederick, here,
Half smothered in a lake of mud and dirt,
Through which the Furies dragged me by the heels.

Fred, Martino, see Benvolio's horns again !

Mart, O, misery ! how now, Benvolio ?

Benv, Defend me, heaven ! shall I be haunted still ?

Mart, Nay, fear not, man, we have no power to kilL

Benv, My friends transform^ thus : O, hellish spite !
Your heads are all set with horns.

Fred, You hit it right.
It is your own you mean : feel on your head

' The stage^loor.

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SCENE XI.] Doctor Faustus. 3 1 1

Betiv. Zounds!^ horns again !

Mart, Nay, chafe not, man, we all are sped.

Benv, What devil attends this damned magician.
That spite of spite our wrongs are doubled ?

Fred, What may we do that we may hide our shames ?

Benv, If we should follow him to work revenge.
He'd join long asses' ears to these huge horns,
And make us laughing-stocks to all the world.

Mart What shall we then do, dear Benvolio ?

Bettv, I have a castle joining near these woods,
And thither well repair, and live obscure.
Till time shall alter these ^ our brutish shapes :
Sith black disgrace hath thus eclipsed our fame,
We'll rather die with grief than live with shame.

\^Exeunt omnes.

Scene XL runs as follows in ed, 16 16 : —
Enter Faustus and the Horse-Courser, and Mephis-

TOPILIS.

Horse-C, I beseech your worship accept of these forty
dollars.

Faust Friend, thou canst not buy so good a horse for
so small a price : I have no great need to sell him, but if
thou likest him for ten dollars more, take him, because I
see thou hast a good mind to him.

Horse-C, I beseech you, sir, accept of this : I am a
very poor man, and have lost very much of late by horse-
flesh, and this bargain will set me up again.

1 So eds. z6ao, 1634. —Ed. z6x6 " Zons.**
s So eds. 1690, 1624.— Ed. 16x6 " this."

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312 Appendix to [scenb xi.

Faiist Well, I will not stand with thee ; give me the
money. Now, sirrah, I must tell you that you may ride
him o'er hedge and ditch and spare him not ; but, do you
hear, in any case, ride him not into the water.

JHorse-C, How, sir, not into the water? — ^why, will he
not drink of all waters ?

Faust Yes ; he will drink of all waters, but ride him
not into the water ; o'er hedge and ditch, and where thou
wilt, but not into the water. Go, bid the hostler deliver
him unto you, and remember what 1 say.

Horse-C. I warrant you, sir : O ! joyful day : now am
I made a man for ever ! \ExiL

Faust. What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemned
to die ?
Thy fatal time draws to a final end ;
Despair doth drive distrust into my thoughts:
Confound these passions with a quiet sleep :
Tush ! Christ did call the Thief upon the Cross \
Then rest thee, Faustus, quiet in conceit

\He sits to sleep.

Enter the Horse-Courser wet,

Horse-C, 1 what a cozening Doctor was this ! I
riding my horse into the water, thinking some hidden
mystery had been in the horse, I had nothing under me
but a little straw, and had much ado to scape drowning.
Well, ril go rouse him, and make him give me my forty
dollars again. Ho ! sirrah, Doctor, you cozening scab !
Master Doctor, awake and rise, and give me my money
again; for your horse is turned to a bottle of hay.

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SCENE xitf.] Doctor Fansius. 313

Master Doctor ! \HepuUs off his leg.'\ Alas 1 I am un-
done ! what shall I do ! I have pulled off his leg.

Faust. O ! help, help, the villain hath murdered me !

HorsC'C. Murder or not murder, now he has but one
leg 111 outrun him, and cast this leg into some ditch or
other. \He runs off.

Faust. Stop him I stop him ! stop him : — ha, ha, ha 1
Faustus hath his leg again, and the Horse-courser a
bundle of hay for his forty dollars.

Enter Wagner.
How now, Wagner, what news with thee ?

Wag. li it please you, the Duke of Vanholt doth
earnestly entreat your company ; and hath sent some of
his men to attend you, with provision fit for your journey.

Faust. The Duke of Vanholt's an honourable gentle-
man, and one to whom I must be no niggard of my
cunning : come, away. [^Exeunt.

Here follows a scene not found in the two earlier ^ios.

Enter RoBiN, Dick, Horse-Courser, and Carter.

Cart Come, my masters, I'll bring you to the best beer
in Europe ; what ho ! hostess 1 where be these whores ?

Enter Hostess.
Host. How now, what lack you? What, my old
guess ?i welcome.

Eob. Sirrah, Dick, dost thou know why I stand so mute?
Dick. No, Robin, why is't?

^ Guests.

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3 1 4 Appendix to [scenb x w.

Rob, I am eighteen-pence on the score ; but say no-
thing j see if she have forgotten me.

Host Who's this, that stands so solemnly by himself?
What, my old guest ?

Rob. O hostess, how do you do ? I hope my score
stands still.

Host I, there's no doubt of that ; for methinks you
make no haste to wipe it out

Dick, Why, hostess, I say, fetch us some beer.

Host You shall presently : look up into the hall there,
ho I {Exit.

Dick, Come, sirs, what shall we do now till mine hostess
comes ?

Cart. Marry, sir, I'll tell you the bravest tale how a
conjurer served me ; you know Doctor Faustus ?

Horse- C I, a plague take him ; here's some on's have
cause to know him ; did he conjure thee too ?

Cart, I'll tell you how he served me : as I was going
to Wittenberg t'other day with a load of hay he met me,
and asked me what he should give me for as much hay
as he could eat ; now, sir, I, thinking a little would serve
his turn, bad him take as much as he would for three
farthings ; so he presently gave me my money and fell to
eating ; and as I am a cursen man, he never left eating
till he had eat up all my load of hay.

All, O, monstrous ! eat a whole load of hay ?
Rob, Yes, yes, that may be ; for I have heard of one
that has eat a load of logs.

Horse-C, Now, sirs, you shall hear how villainously he
served me : I went to him yesterday to buy a horse of

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SCENE XII. ] Doctor Faustus. 315

him, and he would by no means sell him under forty
dollars ; so, surs, because I knew him to be such a horse
as would run over hedge and ditch and never tire, I gave
him his money ; so when I had my horse, Doctor Faustps
bad me ride him night and day, and spare him no time ;
but, quoth he, in any case, ride him not into the water :
now, sh:, I thinking the horse had some quality that he
would not have me know of, what did I, but rid him
into a great river ; and when I came just in the midst,
my horse vanished away, and I sate straddling upon a
bottle of hay.

AIL O brave Doctor !

Horse- C. But you shall hear how bravely I served him
for it ; I went me home to his house, and there I found
him asleep ; I kept a hallooing and whooping in his ears,
but all could not wake him : I, seeing that, took him by
the leg, and never rested pulling till I had pulled me his
leg quite off; and now 'tis at home in mine hostry.

liob. And has the Doctor but one leg then? ITiat's
excellent I for one of his devils turned me mto the like-
ness of an ape's face.

Cart, Some more drink, hostess.

Rob, Hark you, we'll into another room and drink
awhile, and then well go seek out the doctor.

\Exeunt omnes.

Scene XII. stands as follows in ed, 1616 : —

Enter the Duke of Vanholt, his Duchess, Faustus, and
Mephistophius.

Duke, Thanks, Master Doctor, for these pleasant

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3 1 6 Appendix to [scene xh.

sights ; nor know I how sufficiently to recompense your
great deserts in erecting that enchanted castle in the air;
the sight whereof so delighted me, as nothing in the
world could please me more.

Faust I do think myself, my good lord, highly recom-
pensed in that it pleaseth your grace to think but well of
that which Faustus hath performed. But, gracious lady,
it may be that you have taken no pleasure in those sights ;
therefore I pray you tell me, what is the thing you most
desire to have ; be it in the world, it shall be yours. I
have heard that great-bellied women do long for things
are rare and dainty.

Duchess. True, Master Doctor ; and since I find you so
kind, I will make known unto you what ray heart desires
to have; and were it now summer as it is January, a
dead time of the winter, I would request no better meat
than a dish of ripe grapes.

Faust This is but a small matter : go, Mephistophilis ;
away ! \Eodt Mephistophilis.] Madam, I will do more
than this for your content

Enter Mephistophilis again with the grapes.

Here now, taste ye these ; they should be good, for they
come from a far country, I can tell you.

Duke. This makes me wonder more than all the rest ;
that at this time of the year, when every tree is barren of
his fruit, from whence you had these ripe grapes.

Faust Please it, your grace, the year is divided into
two circles over the whole world ; so that when it is
winter with us, in the contrary circle it is likewise summer

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SCENE XII.] Doctor Faustiis. 3 1 7

with them \ as in India, Saba, and such countries that
lie far eas{, where they have fruit twice a year; from
whence, by means of a swift spirit that I have, I had these
grapes brought as you see.

Duchess, And trust me they are the sweetest grapes that
e'er I tasted. \The Clown[s] bounce at the gate within,

Duke, What rude disturbers have we at the gate ?
Go paciiy their fury, set it ope.
And then demand of them what they would have.

\They knock again^ and ccUl out to talk with Faustus.

Serv, Why, how now, masters ; what a coil is there ;
What is the reason you disturb the Duke ?

Dick, We have no reason for it, therefore a fig for him.

Serv. Why, saucy varlets, dare you be so bold?

Horse- C, I hope, sir, we have wit enough to be more
bold than welcome.

Serv, It appears so; pray be bold elsewhere, and
trouble not the Duke.

Duke. What would they have ?

Serv. They all cry out to speak with Doctor Faustus.

Cart. I, and we will speak with him.

Duke, Will you, sir ? Commit the rascals.

Dick. Commit with us ; he were as good commit with
his &ther as commit with us.

Faust, I do beseech your grace, let them come in,
They are good subjects for a merriment.

Duke. Do as thou wilt, Faustus, I give thee leave.

Faust^ I thank your grace.

Enter Robin, Dick, Carter, and Horse- Courser.
Why, how now, my good friends ?

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3 1 8 Appendix to [scene xil

Faith you are too outrageous ; but come near,
I have procured your pardons ; welcome alL

Eob, Nay, sir, we will be welcome for our money, and
we will pay for what we take. What ho ! give's half a
dozen of beer here, and be hanged

Faust Nay, hark you, can you tell me where you are ?

Cart I, marry, can I, we are under heaven.

Scfv, I; but, Sir Saucebox, know you in what
place?

Horse- C. I, I, the house is good enough to drink
in ; zouns 1 fill us some beer, or we'll break all the
barrels in the house, and dash out all your brains with
your bottles.

Faust Be not so furious ; come you shall have beer.
My lord, beseech you give me leave awhile,
I'll gage my credit 'twill content your grace.

JDuke. With all my heart, kind Doctor, please thyself.
Our servants and our court's at thy command.

Faust I humbly thank your grace ; then fetch some
beer.

Horse-C. I, marry! there spake a doctor, indeed!
and fiEuth, I'll drink a health to thy wooden leg for that
word

Faust My wooden leg I what dost thou mean by
that?

Cart, Ha, ha, ha I dost hear him, Dick? he has forgot
his leg.

Borse-C I, I, he does not stand much upon that.

Faust No, faith, not much upon a wooden leg.

Cart, Good Lord ! that flesh and blood should be so

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SCENE XII.] Doctor Faustus. 319

frail with your worship ! Do not you remember a horse-
courser you sold a horse to ?

Faust Yes, I remember I sold one a horse.

Cart, And do you remember you bid he should not
ride into the water ?

Faust Yes, I do very well remember that.

Cart And do you remember nothing of your leg.

Faust No, in good sooth.

Cart Then, I pray, remember your courtesy.

Faust I thank you, sir.

Cart 'Tis not so much worth : I pray you tell me one
thing.

Faust What's that?

Cart Be both your legs bedfellows every night to-
gether ?

Faust Would'st thou make a Colossus of me, that thou
askest me such a question ?

Cart. No, truly, sir, I would make nothing of you;
but I would fain know that

Enter Hostess with drink,

Faust Then I assure thee, certainly they are.

Cart I thank you, I am fully satisfied.

Faust, But wherefore dost thou ask ?

Cart, For nothing, sir ; but methinks you should have
a wooden bedfellow of one of 'em.

Horse- C. Why, do you hear, sir, did not I pull off one
of your legs when you were asleep ?

Faust, But I have it again now I am awake ? look you
here, sir.

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320 Appendix to [scknk xvi.

AIL O horrible ! had the Doctor three legs ?
Cart Do you remember, sfa", how you cozened me,
and eat up my load of

[Faustus, in the middle of each speech^ charms them
dumb,

Dick, Do you remember how you made me wear an
ape's

Horse- C, You whoreson conjuring scab! do you
remember how you cozened me with a ho

Clotvn. Ha* you forgotten me ? You think to carry it
away with your hey-pass and re-pass : do you remember
the dog's fa [Exeunt Clowns.

Host Who pays for the ale? Hear you, Master Doctor ;
now you have sent away my guess, I pray you who shall
pay me for my a [Exit Hostess.

Duchess, My lord.
We are much beholding to this learned man.

Duke, So are we, madam ; which we will recompense
With all the love and kindness that we may ;
His artful sport drives all sad thoughts away. [Exeunt,

Tned, 1616 Scene XVI. begins thus : —
Thunder, Enter Lvcifkr, Belzebub, a/»//MEPHiSTO-

PHILIS.

Zuc, Thus from infernal Dis do we ascend
To view the subjects of our monarchy,
Those souls which sin seals the black sons of hell ;
'Mong which, as chief, Faustus, we come to thee,

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SCENE XVI.] Doctor Faustus, 3 2 1

Bringing with us lasting damnation,

To wait upon thy soul : the time is come

Which makes it forfeit.

Meph, And, this gloomy night,
Here, in this room, will wretched Faustus be.

Belz, And here we'll stay,
To mark him how he doth demean himself.

MepK How should he but in desperate lunacy ?
Fond worldling, now his heart-blood dries with grief;
His conscience kills it \ and his labouring brain
Begets a world of idle fantasies
To over-reach the devil ; but all in vain ;
His store of pleasures must be sauc'd with pain.
He and his servant Wagner are at hand ;
Both come from drawing Faustus' latest will.
See, where they come !

Enter Faustus and Wagner.

Faust Say, Wagner, — thou hast perus'd my will, —
How dost thou like it ?

Wag, Sir, so wondrous well,
As in all humble duty I do yield
My life and lasting service for your love.

Faust Gramercy,^ Wagner.

Enter Scholars.
Welcome, gentlemen. [Exit Wagner.

First SchoL Now, worthy Faustus, methinks your
looks are changed.

Socd. z63o.— Ed. x6x6 ''Qramercies.**
VOL I. X

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322 Appendix to [scene xvi.

Faust Ah, gentlemen.
[The text then proceeds as in ed. 1604; but after I 63,
when the scholars retire^ thefollamng additions
are found : —

Meph, I, Faustus, now thou hast no hope of heaven ;
Therefore despair ; think only upon hell,
For that must be thy mansion, there to dwell

Faust O thou bewitching fiend ! 'twas thy temptation
Hath robb'd me of eternal happiness !

Meph, I do confess it, Faustus, and rejoice :
'Twas I that, when thou wert i' the way to heaven,
Damm'd up thy passage ; when thou took'st the book
To view the Scriptures, then I turned the leaves,
And led thine eye.

What, weep'st thou ? 'tis too late ; despah: ! Farewell !

Fools that will laugh on earth must weep in hell. [Exit

Enter Good Angel and Evil Angel cU several doors.

Good Ang. O Faustus ! if thou hadst given ear to me.
Innumerable joys had follow'd thee !
But thou didst love the world.

Evil Ang, Gave ear to me,
And now must taste hell-pains perpetually.

Good Ang, O, what will all thy riches, pleasures, pomps,
Avail thee now ?

Evil Ang, Nothing, but vex thee more,
To want in hell, that had on earth such store.

Good Ang, O, thou hast lost celestial happiness.
Pleasures unspeakable, bliss without end.
Hadst thou affected sweet divinity.
Hell or the devil had had no power on thee :

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SCENE XVI.] Doctor Faustus. 323

Hadst thou kept on that way, Faustus, behold,

\MusiCy whik a throne descends.
In what resplendent glory thou hadst sit
In yonder throne, like those bright-shining saints,
And triumph'd over hell ! That hast thou lost ;
And now, poor soul, must thy good angel leave thee :
The jaws of hell are open to receive thee.

\Exit The throne ascends.

Evil Ang, Now, Faustus, let thine eyes with horror
stare \Hell is discovered.

Into that vast perpetual torture-house :
There are the furies tossing damnbd souls
On burning forks ; there bodies boil in lead ;
There are live quarters broiling on the coals.
That ne'er can die ; this ever-burning chair
Is for o'er-tortured souls to rest them in ;
These that are fed with sops of flaming fire
Were gluttons, and lov'd only delicates,
And laugh'd to see the poor starve at their gates ;
But yet all these are nothing ; thou shalt see
Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be.

Faust. O, I have seen enough to torture me !

Evil Ang. Nay, thou must feel them, taste the smart
of all:
He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure falL
And so, I leave thee, Faustus, till anon,
Then wilt thou tumble in confusion.

{Exit. Hell disappears.

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324 Doctor Faustus. [scene xvi*.

[Scene XVLi.]

At the dose of Scene XVI. ined. 1616 follows a scene
which I suppose to hctve been written by Marlowe : —

£nter Scholars.

J^f'rst SchoL Come, gentlemen, let us go visit Faustus,
For such a dreadful night was never seen ;
Since first the world's creation did begin,
Such fearful shrieks and cries were never heard :
Pray Heaven the doctor have escap'd the danger.

Sec. SchoL O help us. Heaven I see, here are Faustus'
limbs,
All torn asunder by the hand of death 1

Third SchoL The devils whom Faustus serv'd have
torn him thus ;
For, 'twixt the hours of twelve and one, methought,
I heard him shriek and call aloud for help ;
At which self time the house seem'd all on fire
With dreadful horror of these damnbd fiends.

Sec, SchoL Well, gentlemen, though Faustus' end be
such
As every Christian heart laments to think on.
Yet, for he was a scholar once admir'd
For wondrous knowledge in our German schools.
We'll give his mangled limbs due burial ;
And all the students, cloth'd in mourning black.
Shall wait upon his heavy funeral [Exeunt.

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( 325 )

BALLAD OF FAUSTUS.

" A ballad of the life and death of Doctor Faastus the great con-
gerer/' perhaps founded on Marlowe's play, was licensed to be
printed 28th February 1588. It was perhaps the ballad printed
below from the Roxburghe Collection.

The judgment of God shewed upon one John Faustus, Doctor in
Divinity,

Tune <2^ Fortune my Foe.
All Christian men, give ear a while to me,
How I am plung'd in pain, but cannot die :
I liv'd a life the like did none before.
Forsaking Christ, and I am damn'd therefore.

At Wittenburge, a town in Germany,
There was I born and bred of good degree ;
Of honest stock, which afterwards I sham'd ;
Accurst therefore, for Faustus was I nam'd.

In learning, loe, my uncle brought up me,
And made me Doctor in Divinity ;
And, when he d/d, he left me all his wealth,
Whose cursed gold did hinder my souls health.

Then did I shun the holy Bible-book,
Nor on Gods word would ever after look ;
But studied accursed conjuration.
Which was the cause of my utter damnation.

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326 Ballad of Faustus.

The devil in fryars weeds appeared to me,
And streight to my request he did agree,
That I might have all things at my desire :
I gave him soul and body for his hire.

Twice did I make my tender flesh to bleed,
Twice with my blood I wrote the devils deed,
Twice wretchedly I soul and body sold.
To live in peace ^ and do what things I would.

For four and twenty years this bond was made,
And at the length my soul was truly paid !
Time ran away, and yet I never thought
How dear my soul our Saviour Christ had bought.

Would I at first been made a beast by kind !
Then had not I so vainly set my mind ;
Or would, when reason first began to bloom,
Some darksome den had been my deadly tomb !

Woe to the day of my nativity !
Woe to the time that once did foster me !
And woe unto the hand that seal'd the bill !
Woe to myself the cause of all my ill !

The time I passed away, with much delight,
'Mongst princes, peers, and many a worthy knight :
I wrought such wonders by my magick skill,
That all the world may talk of Faustus stilL

The devil he carried me up into the sky.
Where I did see how all the world did lie ;

1 ' ' Another copy of this ballad in the British Museam^Sallads, &c.,
643, m,tOt — ^has, pleasure.'" — Dyce,

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Ballad of Faustus. 327

I went about the world in eight daies space,
And then returned unto my native place.

What pleasure I did wish to please my mind
He did perform, as bond and seal did bind ;
The secrets of the stars and planets told.
Of earth and sea, with wonders manifold

When four and twenty years was almost run,
I thought of all things that was past and done ;
How that the devil would soon claim his right.
And carry me to everlasting night

Then all too late I curst my wicked deed,
The dread^ whereof doth make my heart to bleed ;
All daies and hours I mourned wondrous sore,
Repenting me of all things done before.

I then did wish both sun and moon to stay,
All times and seasons never to decay ;
Then had my time nere come to dated end,
Nor soul and body down to hell descend.

At last, when I had but one hour to come,
I tum'd my glass, for my last hour to run.
And caird in learned men to comfort me ;
But faith was gone, and none could comfort me.

By twelve a clock my glass was almost out :
My grieved conscience then began to doubt ;
I wisht the students stay in chamber by ;
But, as they staid, they heard a dreadful cry.

1 " So the other copy.— The Roxburghe copy * deed.* '*— i?y«.

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328 Ballad of Faustus.

Then present, lo,^ they came into the hall, 1
Whereas my brains was cast against the wall ;
Both arms and l^s in pieces torn they see,
My bowels gone : this was an end of me.

You conjurers and damned witches all,
Example take by my unhappy fall :
Give not your souls and bodies unto hell,
See that the smallest hair you do not sell

But hope that Christ his kingdom you may gain.
Where you shall never fear such mortal pain ;
Forsake the devil and all his crafty ways.
Embrace true faith that never more decays.

Printed by and for A, M. and sold hy the Booksellers
of London,

» " The other copy ' presently. * "— Dyce.

END OF VOL. I.

ntlMTKD BY BALLANTYNB, HANSON AND CO.
KUINBUXGH AMD lOVkU^H,

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